Arizona AG gives county OK for full ballot hand counts
Arizona’s Republican attorney general says county officials can hand-count all ballots in at least five races from the Nov. 8 election
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona's Republican attorney general has issued an opinion saying county officials can hand-count all ballots in at least five races from the Nov. 8 election, a move that gives a green light to GOP officials in at least two counties that have been clamoring for hand counts.
The efforts to hand-count ballots are driven by unfounded concerns among some Republicans that problems with vote-counting machines or voter fraud led to former President Donald Trump's 2020 defeat.
The new attorney general opinion led the two Republicans on the three-member Cochise County board of supervisors to boost their plan to hand-count some races in both early and Election Day ballots. They had pledged to pare back the effort on Wednesday.
Under state law, the local leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties would have to provide hundreds of volunteers to do the counts.
