Arizona Sues After County Puts an Election Skeptic in Charge of Voting
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/arizona-sues-cochise-county.html
Arizona Sues After County Puts an Election Skeptic in Charge of Voting
Cochise County, a hotbed of conspiracy theories, transferred election duties from a nonpartisan office to the countys elected recorder, a Republican.
By Neil Vigdor
March 8, 2023, 5:51 p.m. ET
An Arizona county is being sued by the states Democratic attorney general after it transferred voting oversight to the countys Republican recorder, who has cast doubts about past election results in a place where former President Donald J. Trump won nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2020.
It is the latest clash between Democrats in statewide office and Cochise County, a deeply Republican area in southeastern Arizona, where conspiracy theories about voter fraud and irregularities still swirl.
The countys nonpartisan elections director, Lisa Marra, announced in January that she would resign, citing threats against her after she refused to comply with rogue election directives from the Republicans who control county government, including plans to count ballots by hand after last years midterm elections. She recently accepted a position with the secretary of states office.
The countys board of supervisors then made David W. Stevens, the Republican recorder, the interim elections director, with the boards two G.O.P. members supporting the new power structure in a Feb. 28 vote, and its lone Democrat opposing it.
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