'Don’t let them lie today': Text messages reveal AZ GOP officials’ unlawful 'pressure campaign'

16 July 2024

Arizona is no stranger to election interference tactics, as 18 of Donald Trump's MAGA allies in April were "charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related" to the 2020 presidential election, according to The Associated Press.

Two years later, NBC News reported that a pair of "Republican supervisors in Cochise County, Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby, County — were charged for allegedly conspiring to interfere with the county’s midterm election — in part by pushing for a full hand count of ballots."

Now, according to a Tuesday, July 16 report published by Votebeat, "previously unreported text messages" reveal that Arizona Republican officials' "privately pressured county leaders across the state to count ballots by hand instead of using machines."

Votebeat reports that "newly obtained text messages from Cochise County, which American Oversight fought for in court and shared with Votebeat, show that a state senator was trying to pressure Judd during the public meeting when the supervisors held the key vote on hand-counting ballots."

Cochise County-based state Senator David Gowan (R), according to the report, "texted Judd just as the meeting began," writing, "Does the Cochise bos know there is no law prohibiting them from hand count? From President Fann" — "referring to the county supervisors."

Votebeat reports, "In Pinal County, the day supervisors discussed hand-counting ballots in this year’s election, state Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Republican who represents parts of Pinal County, texted Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh, also a Republican, to assert that hand-counting all ballots was legal — something the Secretary of State’s Office and state Attorney General’s Office have said is not true."

Rogers typed, "Don’t let them lie today."

NBC News last year reported:

After the 2020 election, the Arizona state Senate authorized a controversial hand-count audit of two races. The audit took months and cost millions, and — by its leadership’s own account in text messages obtained by The Arizona Republic — failed to result in an accurate count.

Furthermore, Votebeat notes:

The issue with hand-counting ballots is not just the law. Multiple studies, trials, and attempts to hand-count ballots across the country — including in Pinal and Mohave counties — have proven that hand-counting instead of using machines would cost more money, require hundreds to thousands more workers, lead to inaccurate results, and potentially delay or disrupt the certification of results. Yet the conversations about instituting hand counts continue in Arizona, especially as many of the county supervisors run for reelection this year.

The Guardian reported in May that "Judd told Votebeat that she wasn’t a driving force for a hand count in the first place and voted for it because of what she was hearing from constituents."

The GOP county supervisor said, "You can ask anyone. I never pushed for it."

Votebeat notes that "supervisors ultimately rejected" the requests from Senator Rogers and Supervisor Cavanaugh. "So far, all Arizona counties plan to use machines to count ballots for the upcoming election. The supervisors in Pinal and Mohave, specifically, decided against a hand count after the counties’ lawyers told them they would potentially be violating state law and could be held personally liable if they went ahead with it."

Votebeat Arizona's full report is available at this link.

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