The lawsuit came Monday as Democrats agreed to help provide volunteers to count about 50,000 early and Election Day ballots in the county where Republicans strongly backed former President Donald Trump in 2020. The state’s law on counting votes, which are usually limited to a small percentage of the votes cast, says that party chairmen from at least two recognized parties must provide a list of people to help count the votes, and no more than 75% may be from the same party. The measurements will be in addition to the official machine table. Arizona has become a hotspot for voter denial over the past two years, and in recent weeks gunmen have staked out polls in an attempt to prevent what they claim is potential illegal voting. A federal judge last week refused to issue an injunction blocking the voting, saying the groups that organized it had a First Amendment right to be there. That prompted the Justice Department to jump into the fray Monday, saying the efforts raised concerns about illegal voter intimidation. The two Republicans on the three-member Cochise County Board of Supervisors have pushed for a full hand count, and the GOP county Recorder is pushing ahead, saying he believes five races on the ballot can be counted by hand in just two days. That seems hopeful given the issues in rural Nye County, Nevada, where a nascent hand-counting effort ran into trouble before the state’s highest court halted it last week. County officials there are collecting more than two dozen matches and vowing to resume counting as soon as possible. Cochise County’s full hand count was blessed by the Republican attorney general, whose office issued an informal opinion last Friday saying the county could count all early ballots and Election Day. The secretary of state’s office said this is illegal, however, and warned it could sue. He OK’d counting all Election Day ballots, but said counting all early votes, which make up more than 80% of ballots in most counties, would be illegal. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is a Democrat running for governor. The story continues An independent group called the Arizona Alliance of Retired Americans didn’t wait, suing Cochise County and several of its officials on Monday. The presiding judge sent the case to neighboring Pima County to avoid a conflict after county officials were named. A judge in Tucson has not yet scheduled hearings. The lawsuit seeks an order to halt the full counting of early ballots, echoing the legal position of Hobbs’ office. The county board’s decision led to heated meetings last week, with the lone Democrat vowing to do everything she can to block the effort and the county attorney siding with the secretary of state in saying a full count would was illegal. In a brief meeting Tuesday, where the board was to discuss hiring outside attorneys for the two Republicans, nothing came of it after no one would make a motion to consider the matter. Efforts to manually count ballots are being driven by unfounded concerns among some Republicans that problems with vote-counting machines or voter fraud led to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat. Supervisors in Pinal County, a much larger and growing suburban area just south of metro Phoenix’s Maricopa County, have also considered counting hands. This council intends to discuss the matter on Wednesday, The elected Republican county attorneys in both jurisdictions have warned their respective boards that there is no legal authority to extend the ballot count.
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