Journalists’ Roundtable: 12-02-22: Cochise County Canvass and more

It’s Friday and that means it’s time for the journalists’ roundtable. Joining us tonight for a look at the week’s top stories are Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic & azcentral.com, Jen Fifield of VoteBeat and Camryn Sanchez of Arizona Capitol Times.

Topics this week include:

• Cochise County Canvass
• Hamedeh Election Lawsuit Tossed
• Lake Hit with Sanctions over Lawsuit
• GOP Wants Masters’ Advice on Winning
• Special Session on Education Spending Limit

Cochise County Canvass

Laurie Roberts: “The questions that remains is why were they trying to do this? What was the point? This was a heavily Republican county. Had they succeeded, the only thing they would have succeeded in doing is stripping a Republican of a congressional seat in Southern Arizona. I can only assume that they thought that somehow this would gum up the works and prevent the state from certifying the election results. Perhaps it was a test for 2024, kind of like the fake electors 2.0 issue. Instead of doing fake electors, we’ll just try to block certification at the beginning.”

Camryn Sanchez: “I think that Laurie has a point with that if they had succeeded in not moving forward with what they were supposed to be doing, it would’ve been Republican votes that didn’t get counted technically. Even though that’s not really something that’s even allowed. So it’s more of a point about them showing their frustration with the elections in general and wanting to prove that they’re not on board with it and they’re being forced, like Mohave County, which is what their board of supervisors also said.”

Jen Fifield: “I think Laurie is right, I think it’s a test case for 2024. They’re trying to find loopholes in state laws across the country and as a hot bed for election issues. Election skeptics are centered here and trying to find out what they can do next time around to try to challenge the election results for the presidential race.”