Arizona County Cannot Hand Count All Ballots, Judge Rules Ahead of Midterms
County officials are not allowed to order a full hand count of ballots cast in the 2022 midterm elections, a judge ruled on Nov. 7.
Two members of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors recently approved a plan for a “100 percent county wide audit” of the election, saying the hand count would “enhance voter confidence.”
They were sued by the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, a nonprofit that said the plan violated state law governing hand counts.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley agreed, ruling that A.R.S. §16-602 does not permit an election official to conduct a hand count of manual audit “starting with and consisting solely of 100% of the ballots cast in an election, rather than by using the increments of ballots established by statute.”…