Mohave County Supervisors unanimously certified the results of the 2022 election Monday, but they made it clear they weren't happy about it.
Some were tempted to follow the lead of Cochise County, which flouted the state's Monday deadline for canvassing election results. The Cochise County board risked legal consequences by rescheduling the required canvass until December 2, despite the November 28 state deadline.
The Mohave board met Monday morning, reached no consensus, and recessed. When they reconvened several hours later, board members voted to go ahead with canvass, because state law requires it.
"I will vote to certify this canvass under duress for the chaos Maricopa County has foisted into our election process," said supervisor Hildy Angius.
Board chair Ron Gould also claimed to be voting "under duress."
"I found out today that I have no choice but to vote aye, or I'll be arrested and charged with a felony. I don't think that that is what our founders had in mind when they chose a democratic process to elect their leaders, or our form of self-government and I find that very disheartening," Gould said.
While no election errors have been cited in Mohave County, many Arizona Republicans are unhappy that Maricopa County was being held up as a "laughing stock" because of errors that caused some ballots to be rejected by counting machines.
Maricopa officials continue to assure the public that all the problem ballots were eventually counted.
