GOP officials in Cochise County in Arizona voted to hold up local midterm election certification on Monday. It was a disturbing reflection of partisan conflicts into ambiguous basics of the whole election process and overall unknown and unchartered territory.
The supervisors in Cochise County, Arizona, have refused to endorse the results even though the members have been unable to cite any particular disputes with the vote-counting process or glitches in the voting process. Republican supervisors in Arizona’s Mohave County delayed the certification process of the election by deferring a vote. But they subsequently backtracked and finally certified the voting.
Their move is not likely to significantly have any effect on the final election results in the midterm elections. Officials in Arizona have warned of legal steps to ensure the certification of the election.
But the events point towards a disturbing and newfound willingness of GOP officeholders to directly dispute the election results which have gone against them.
Arizona Republican Officials Have Alleged They Were Not Given Respect
One of the two GOP supervisors, Peggy Judd, has complained about being “kicked around” and also not being given the respect they deserve.
Judd justified delaying the Arizona county results saying it was a protest against the election process in Maricopa County with Republican officials and candidates claiming overall voter disenfranchisement due to printing errors in ballot papers.
Similar moves as in Arizona were made by officials in Pennsylvania where the Delaware County results were disputed while Luzerne County Republican officials cast their vote against the certification process. This forced a delay in declaring the election results and created a deadlock as one of the 3 Democratic Party board members stayed away from the voting process.
Elections in Pennsylvania and Arizona are conducted by local governments that are empowered to endorse the results. Conservative pundits have alleged that voters were disenfranchised and suppressed without any evidence to back that up. The actions have been restricted to areas where Republicans are in an overwhelming majority.