A rural county in Arizona delayed the certification of the midterm election’s results, raising concerns about the effect of misinformation about the voting process spread by far-right candidates during this year’s campaign in the state.
The Republican majority of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted on Monday to postpone the certification process until Friday, claiming concerns about voting machines. By doing so, the county missed the Monday deadline for all 15 Arizona counties to certify their results.
The decision led Arizona’s Secretary of State Katie Hobbs — a Democrat who won the race for governor — to sue the county for failing to certify the results in time.
Hobbs defeated Kari Lake, a Donald Trump-backed Republican who pushed false election fraud claims during the campaign and repeatedly refused to say if she would concede in case of defeat.
Lake has not conceded to date. Last week, her campaign filed a lawsuit demanding more information from Maricopa County to compare the number of voters who appeared at polling places and the number of ballots cast.
Cochise County’s decision to delay the certification process put at risk the votes of its 47,000 residents and might delay the election-certification process.
