In the U.S., Cochise County, Arizona, is the only one that has refused to certify the results of the election.
There is a protest outside of the election center.
The board of supervisors in Cochise County voted heavily for Republicans in statewide races, but refused to certify the county's results on Monday in a 2-1 vote, one board member told the New York Times.
The Secretary of State and Governor-elect sued Cochise County on Monday in an effort to get them to submit their results to the state.
A voter in the county filed a notice with the county Wednesday threatening a class action lawsuit if the refusal to certify is not changed.
If the board doesn't certify the results at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, the courts will likely force them to, as happened in New Mexico.
The official statewide vote totals will not include Cochise County if the results aren't certified by Monday.
Excluding the county's votes would flip the election results for Arizona's Sixth Congressional District from Republican to Democrat, as well as a race for state superintendent of public instruction.
12 News reported late Wednesday that the Cochise County board had trouble finding a lawyer to represent it in the lawsuits. The officials were told that Bryan Blehm had turned down the offer to represent them, even though they had selected him as their attorney.
The Cochise County officials will face consequences if they refuse to certify. A former Arizona attorney general sent a letter to the Arizona Attorney General and the Cochise County Attorney urging them to bring criminal charges against the officials who delayed the certification. The former prosecutors argued that it was against the law to interfere with election laws and that doing so was a felony. The state would have to decide whether to pursue charges.
Election results certification has become more charged in the past two years as former President Donald Trump pushed baseless voter fraud claims in the aftermath of the 2020 election that have taken hold amongst his base. Wayne County, Michigan, briefly refused to certify its results in 2020 for a few hours before reversing course, and Otero County, New Mexico, refused to certify its results earlier this year before being forced to do so in court. Mohave County, Arizona, is one of the places where certification is a concern in the November elections. The only other county in which a state board declined to certify results was Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, as one board member abstained from voting after the country ran out of paper ballots on election day. During a second vote on Wednesday, the board certified the results. The boards in other Pennsylvania counties have not explicitly refused to certify results in the same way as Cochise County, despite calls for a recount from GOP voters.
In addition to Cochise County objecting to voting issues that didn't prevent that county from certifying its vote count, the GOP is expected to file a lawsuit challenging the county's election results. There is no evidence that the issues with voting tabulators caused voters to cast ballots through other methods. Lake's lawsuit can't be filed until after the state certifies its results, which comes after Lake, who has pushed baseless claims about voter fraud, lost to Hobbs. Lake's efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election on the basis of voter fraud are not likely to change the results.
The refusal of an Arizona county to certify election results could cost the GOP a House seat.
There are few delays in the election certification process.
Cochise County doesn't have an attorney to defend it from a lawsuit.
The Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted to delay certification.
The ex-prosecutors think that Cochise County supervisors should be charged.
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