Search Articles
PHOENIX (CN) — A southern Arizona county official pleaded guilty to election interference Monday morning, two years after canvassing delays in the 2022 general election nearly prevented the secretary of state from certifying the state’s results.
Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby, both Republicans, voted twice to delay canvassing the county’s election results past the deadline until the secretary of state’s office provided a satisfactory rebuttal to unproven claims of widespread election fraud and faulty ballot tabulation machines.
Judd denied ever intending to interfere with the election results, but acknowledged in the plea agreement that she failed to canvass the election as required by law. Crosby said both in the public meetings in November 2022 and in a grand jury proceeding that he never believed the conspiracy theories, but had promised his constituents the opportunity to be heard.
Judd called it political prosecution.
“If they don’t believe the same things you do, they’ll come after you,” she said outside a Phoenix courtroom Monday morning. “If I had known they would prosecute me, I wouldn’t have done it.”
Judd was originally indicted on counts of conspiracy and interfering with an elections officer, a Class 5 felony, but instead pleaded guilty to failure or refusal to perform duty by an election officer, a Class 3 misdemeanor. She will be sentenced to unsupervised probation for not less than 90 days. She will also pay a maximum $500 fine.
“Any attempt to interfere with elections in Arizona will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement. “Today’s plea agreement and sentencing should serve as a strong reminder that I will not hesitate to use every tool available to uphold the rule of law and protect the integrity of Arizona’s elections.”
The attorney general’s office declined to say whether Crosby is engaged in similar plea negotiations.
Crosby first suggested delaying the election canvass during a Nov. 18, 2022, meeting while responding to concerns from constituents over election fraud — peddled mostly by Republican politicians who say the last two general elections were stolen from Republican candidates.
A group of Cochise County citizens who claimed to be experts in voting machine certification laboratories told Crosby they feared the machines used in Cochise County weren’t properly verified. Crosby told them they could present their argument against a representative from the secretary of state’s office on Nov. 28, 2022 — the supervisors’ legal deadline to complete the canvass.
Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs declined to send a representative to the meeting, as she had already released information affirming the accreditation of the voting machines that was backed by a ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court.
When he arrived to the supervisors’ meeting on Nov. 28, 2022, Crosby found that the only item on the meeting agenda, created by Democratic Chairperson Anne English, was the immediate acceptance and certification of the election results. Crosby said that because the public hadn’t been properly notified that the canvass would be completed that day, doing so would result in an open meeting violation. Therefore, he and Judd had no choice but to vote to delay once again.
Hobbs sued, and a state judge ordered the board to vote to canvass the results on Dec. 1, which it did by the end of the day. Hobbs certified the statewide results before her Dec. 5 deadline, which the defendants say is proof that no interference took place.
Judd and Crosby have maintained their legal innocence since the indictment. They moved for dismissal this past April, but Maricopa County Judge Geoffrey Fish kept the case alive.
Though neither the defendants nor other county supervisors have signaled they’d act similarly in the upcoming election, state officials have taken steps against copycats. In the 2023 Elections Procedures Manual, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes included a provision giving himself the discretion to throw out the votes of an entire county if its results aren’t canvassed by the due date. A federal judge temporarily blocked the rule’s enforcement until after the general election.
“I still believe the supervisors have an obligation to be careful,” Judd said.
Attorneys for both Judd and Crosby did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Follow @JournalistJoeAZSubscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.