Arizona AG sues Cochise County over election operations agreement with Recorder David Stevens
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is suing Cochise County for giving its county recorder — a friend and ally of losing secretary of state candidate and election denier Mark Finchem — nearly all authority over county election operations.
Mayes warned officials last month that the maneuver, made by two Republicans on the three-member Cochise County Board of Supervisors, was likely illegal.
Now, the newly elected Democratic attorney general is asking a judge to nullify the agreement, which consolidates most election authority under Republican Cochise County Recorder David Stevens.
In a statement, Mayes described the agreement as an “unqualified handover.”
“The agreement’s broad terms effect a nearly wholesale transfer of power over elections from the board to the recorder, with no regard for specific statutory mandates, and no clear limiting principle for the extent and exercise of that power,” Mayes wrote in her complaint.
In the past, Cochise County election operations were split in two.
Stevens played some part as the county recorder by registering voters, mailing ballots and verifying signatures on returned mail ballots. Separately, an elections director – hired by the county board – was responsible for election day operations and counting votes.
Cochise County’s last elections director, Lisa Marra, recently resigned after objecting to an illegal attempt by Republicans on the county board to conduct a full hand count of the 2022 mid-term election.
Rather than hire a new director, the board on Feb. 28 surrendered its own election authority to Stevens.
They did so over the objections of the Attorney General’s Office and the board’s lone Democratic supervisor, Ann English, who said at the time that “I think we’re acting in an inappropriate and ill-advised way.”
Republican Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, who voted to transfer authority to Stevens, could not immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
Stevens serves on an “election integrity” nonprofit founded by former state lawmaker Finchem, a Republican election denier who lost the 2022 vote for secretary of state to Democrat Adrian Fontes. Stevens also advocated for the illegal, full hand count of the 2022 vote.
The attorney general’s complaint, filed in Cochise County Superior Court, argues that “through the agreement, the recorder has unlawfully aggrandized his power, and the board has unlawfully and almost completely offloaded its statutory duties over elections.”
Mayes additionally raised concerns about the public’s right to know “how and when their government is making consequential decisions that affect their right to vote.” She argued that the agreement makes no mention of how Stevens will handle deliberations over election procedures that, when made by the board, would take place in open meetings.
“I am deeply concerned this move might shield or obscure actions and deliberations the Board would typically conduct publicly under open meeting law,” Mayes said in a statement.
However, not everyone agrees with Mayes. Historically, other counties have delegated extra authority over election operations to county recorders. Fontes, Arizona’s new secretary of state, told Votebeat that counties shouldn’t be “prevented from doing what they think is right.”
