Arizona election 2022: Track the voting controversies and legal challenges

Challenges to election processes in Arizona are already under way in 2022, as they were in the 2020 election.

Here’s a rundown of what has happened in Arizona so far in the general election cycle.

Disputes have continued for days over counting ballots in this southeastern Arizona county, with a population of about 125,500 people. Cochise County officials now intend to hand count all ballots cast in the Nov. 8 election, officials said Oct. 28.

Such a hand count is illegal under Arizona law, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has said. The county’s stance has revived a dispute that could lead to a lawsuit.

Earlier, under pressure from the secretary of state, the county appeared on track to only hand count ballots cast at vote centers on Election Day.

County officials say they want to assuage voter distrust in elections by manually counting the ballots to match against the tally done by tabulation machines. But critics say it’s a ploy to create doubt about the returns, creating a cudgel for election losers to use to challenge election results.

Election drama: Officials say hand count of all ballots is back on

Supervisors provide details: Cochise County gives some details on hand count; Katie Hobbs appears satisfied

‘It’s about the people’: Cochise supervisors vote for hand count of ballots

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi rejected an emergency injunction to stop ballot drop box monitors from gathering outside Arizona voter locations.

The federal judge’s decision on Oct. 28 comes after two voting rights groups filed a legal challenge targeting conservative group Clean Elections USA, which has organized drop box surveillance in the Phoenix area, and its founder, Melody Jennings.

The lawsuit continues despite his decision. Liburdi ordered the court clerk to keep the case open, and attorneys with the Arizona Alliance of Retired Americans said they would appeal.

A separate, but similar lawsuit was filed Oct. 25 by Protect Democracy on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Arizona. In addition to Clean Elections USA, it named Lions of Liberty, a right-wing group in Yavapai County. That group said on Oct. 27 that it would halt monitoring outdoor ballot drop boxes in response to the legal challenge.

No emergency order: Federal judge rejects injunction in ballot drop box monitor lawsuit

In Yavapai County: Lions of Liberty end surveillance of ballot drop boxes 

Plea for action: Will a federal judge stop ballot drop box monitors?

Legal challenges: Ballot drop box observers face lawsuits from voting rights groups

Elections officials noted a handful of problems that were found early, with time to correct them before the election on Nov. 8.

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office said the registrations of about 6,000 voters were getting doublechecked after a county recorder’s office flagged a problem that might have identified those voters as eligible for a ballot that allows voting only in federal races.

In Cochise County, 550 early voters received the wrong ballots in the mail.

Confusion and corrections: Possible errors identified on a few thousand mailed ballots in Arizona

Published
7:05 pm UTC Oct. 31, 2022
Updated
7:05 pm UTC Oct. 31, 2022