Dem Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes on Tuesday informed the Board of Supervisors in rural Mohave County that he knows what they’re up to and they’re going to find out if they fuck around with ditching tabulators to start counting ballots by hand next election, VoteBeat.us reports.
“Hand counting ballots is incredibly prone to human error, which results in a time-intensive process to arrive at correct, final results. However, even assuming correct results, state law does not allow county boards to unilaterally substitute a hand count for certified and tested electronic tabulation equipment,” wrote Fontes to Mohave the board a day after they voted nearly unanimously to request a proposal plan to hand-count ballots going forward. In a statement to VoteBeat Fontes added that “any plan to initiate a full hand count of ballots for a future election would put [county election] officials in serious legal jeopardy, including possible criminal liability, for violations of state law.”
Even more stupid for Fontes is how he’s still stuck dealing with this shit after a judge last November ordered similarly MAGA, rural Cochise County to halt their planned hand count after the 2022 midterms. A letter sent last month to all 15 counties by credibly accused domestic abuser and far right state Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli last month falsely claiming a non-binding resolution declaring ballot tabulation machines illegal was actually binding certainly did not help the situation.