On October 18, an Arizona State Appeals Court issued an opinion in Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans v Crosby, CA-cv-2022-0136. The decision upholds a trial court decision that says Cochise County can’t count all ballots by hand.
Arizona law already allows for counties to choose some precincts at random and hand-count all the ballots in those precincts, in order to check the accuracy of vote-counting machines.
I can’t see the logic in this court decision. Counting is counting. Double counting is even better by hand. I lived in a county where all votes were done on a cardboard produced ballot and you tossed it on a pile of other cardboard ballots on a table exiting the voting room. Always an accurate count and accurate double checking.
The court’s logic is simply reading and construing the existing statutory law. If the legislature wanted to pass a law mandating that all votes be counted by hand, that would of course be constitutional. The judge is just saying that the law doesn’t provide for that.
Thanks Richard. I understand better now.
Marc Elias was a lawyer for the group trying to block a hand count. We should assume they are a front group for the Democrats.
If votes were hand counted at the precinct level there would be more assurance that they were voted by actual voters.