Mark Finchem v Adrian Fontes and Ruben Gallego and Katie Hobbs, “Hobbs abused her office”, “supervisors on the Mojave County board said they were voting to certify the election "under duress"
Mark Finchem v Adrian Fontes and Ruben Gallego and Katie Hobbs, “Hobbs abused her office”, “supervisors on the Mojave County board said they were voting to certify the election "under duress”
From Mark Finchem and Jeff Zink v Adrian Fontes and Ruben Gallego and Katie Hobbs
“More than that, process that should be sacrosanct oozes impropriety. The state officer who was supervisor of the election, the Secretary of State, was herself running for governor Despite repeated calls for the Secretary to recuse herself she refused. Recusal would cause her to lose control of the election she hoped to directly benefit from a staggering appearance of impropriety and display of unethical behavior. To add to it, she worked directly with social media platforms to suppress availability to the public platforms that she herself enjoyed the access to.
Our election is the only mid-term election in the 50 states with such a comical and tragic outcome. It was also the only election in the country where the governing Secretary of State presided over the election.
All these circumstances when taken together were/are so extraordinary that the vote must be nullified.”
“Misconduct - Secretary Hobbs
19. Secretary Hobbs, in her capacity as Secretary of State, has a duty to supervise [elections throughout the state of Arizona. Hobbs was herself elected Secretary in a contested election in 2020.”
“20. Secretary Hobbs, at the same time she had a duty to supervise the election, was seeking the office of Governor in the midterm election.”
22. Lake, her staff, and the Republican electorate perceived a conflict of interest in that Hobbs was a statewide official managing an election in which she was also a candidate for Governor.
23. Pursuant to the obvious conflict of interest that was evident to the voting public through media coverage, Lake repeatedly and publicly called for Hobbs to recuse herself from the Secretary of State's management of the midterm election.
24. Secretary Hobbs repeatedly and publicly refused to recuse herself*”
“29. Hobbs abused her office of Secretary of State by threatening county officials with criminal charges and indictment for failure to certify a defective election process.
30. For example, on November 18, 2022, the Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted not to accept election results certified and submitted by the Cochise County Elections Department as the official canvass for the General Election held on November 8, 2022. Instead, they set a special meeting for December 2, 2022, to hear expert testimony from compliance experts on the voting est lab accreditation.
31. In a November 23 letter to the Mojave County Board, State Elections Director Kori Lorick, who serves as State Elections Director under Secretary Hobbs, said that the canvass —or certification — of the election "is not discretionary."“
“32. On November 28, Kori Lorick emailed the Mojave County Board. Reminding the supervisors again of their “non-discretionary statutory duty to canvass the 2022 General Election results by today," she invoked the threat of prosecution of the county election governing board as follows:
“The only basis for delaying the county canvass is pursuant to AR.S. 16-642(C) if returns from a polling place are missing, and that is indisputably not the case here," she wrote. "1F Mohave County does not perform their ministerial duty to canvass your election results today, we will have no other choice but to pursue legal action and seek fees and sanctions against the Board. "Our office will take all legal action necessary to ensure that Arizona's voters have their votes counted, including referring the individual supervisors who vote not to certify for criminal enforcement under ARS. 16-1010."
33. Under the cited statute, an election official "who knowingly refuses to perform" their election duties "is guilty of a class 6 felony unless a different punishment for such act or omission is prescribed by law."
“37. As a direct result of Hobbs threats, on or about November 28, 2022, two of the supervisors on the Mojave County board said they were voting to certify the election "under duress” after being warned that they would "be arrested and charged with a felony"if they didn't, according to the board chairman, Ron Gould.”
38. On November 29, 2022, Secretary Hobbs filed suit to compel Cochise County to vote "YES" to certify the election results despite the governing boards belief based on an expert opinion that the tabulation machines were not properly vetted via certification. See Hobbs v Crosby CV202200553.”
