Disruptions as Arizona counties certify primary election may signal what’s to come in November

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The banging sound from Chairman Mike Goodman’s gavel filled the boardroom at a Pinal County supervisors meeting Monday, but Kevin Cavanaugh ignored it.

Cavanaugh, a Republican supervisor who lost his bid for sheriff, wanted the public to hear his unproven claims of cheating in the county’s primary election, which was up for certification at the meeting.

No matter how many times Goodman tried to stop him, Cavanaugh kept talking: “Five other candidates have expressed that very strange levels of —.” BANG! BANG! “Candidates came to me and —.”

Finally, Goodman asked a staff member: “Can you turn off his mic?”

Voting in Arizona’s July 30 primary went smoothly around the state, with no major technical or logistical issues, according to observers from both major political parties, elected officials, and candidates. But there were disruptions Monday in two of the state’s largest counties, as their boards of supervisors moved to certify the results.

In Pinal, Cavanaugh voted “aye under duress” to certify the results, later explaining that he felt forced to do so even though he doesn’t believe the results were accurate, including in the sheriff’s race, which he lost by a 2-to-1 margin. And in Maricopa, the epicenter of election conspiracy theories since 2020, residents yelled at the supervisors from the podium during the public comment period, with one saying she had more faith in Russia’s elections because “Maricopa is a joke.”

The Republican-led boards in both counties ultimately voted unanimously to certify the results, but the disruptions may be a sign of what is to come in November.

GOP supervisors and candidates across the state have sought to challenge the results of the last two statewide general elections, and if Donald Trump and Kari Lake — two candidates who still refuse to acknowledge their past election losses — lose their 2024 races for president and U.S. Senate, respectively, there’s a good chance it will happen again. The question is how far their supporters will be willing, or able, to go to protest the results, and whether new strategies, such as a vote “under duress” will come into play.

After watching the conflict at Pinal County’s meeting, Republican County Attorney Kent Volkmer said Cavanaugh’s “under duress” vote concerned him. He said that if that vote had been the deciding vote on whether to certify the results, he probably would have recommended another vote on the matter.

“Duress means it’s not a vote of your own accord,” Volkmer said.

Pinal supervisor calls certification meeting a ‘clown show’

Cavanaugh’s objections at the supervisors meeting came after he told Votebeat that he filed a complaint asking the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to investigate the county’s election results, including his loss to Ross Teeple in the Republican primary for sheriff.

Cavanaugh said he has identified what he believes to be a suspicious pattern in the results that signal cheating. But data analysts who reviewed the results say that by itself, the pattern he identified doesn’t indicate a problem with the results. County officials and observers from both major political parties say they believe the results are accurate.

Before the vote, Volkmer reminded the supervisors of their duty under state law to certify the results by the deadline, which was Monday.

In Arizona, supervisors can postpone the certification only if some results are missing. That was not the case in this election. Any challenges to the results, under state law, have to be filed in court shortly after the secretary of state certifies the statewide results.

The vote to certify is “not the board saying we support, we believe this is correct,” Volkmer said. “You may feel that way, but that’s not what the canvass is for.”

When Cavanaugh then tried to bring up his concerns about the results, Goodman repeatedly attempted to shut him down. When Cavanaugh voted “aye under duress,” Goodman said, “It’s still an aye.”

It’s not the first time a supervisor in Arizona has voted to certify an election “under duress.” In November 2022, in Mohave County, two Republican supervisors did the same.

Like Cavanaugh, the supervisors there said they did so after being warned that they could be prosecuted for not voting yes. Attorney General Kris Mayes launched an investigation after two Republican supervisors in Cochise County delayed the certification of the county’s midterm election results. The trial date for that case will be set in October.

In Pinal County, Republican Supervisor Stephen Miller said on the dais after the vote that the discussion had been a “shameful situation.”

“It’s a clown show,” he said. “We have one duty to canvass these votes, and we can’t hardly get it done. Accusations that were false, that are horrible —.”

Cavanaugh cut him off there. Miller said they probably should adjourn “before it gets really out of hand.”

Goodman declined to let Cavanaugh explain his vote and adjourned the meeting.

After the meeting, Kirk Fiehler, first vice chair of the Pinal County Republican Committee, said he was confident in the election results after observing ballot counting the day after the election.

Lisa Sanor, chair of the Pinal County Democrats, said the same. She was planning to speak at the meeting to thank officials for a fair election. But public comment was not allowed.

“You, Mr. Cavanaugh, are doing your constituents a dangerous disservice if you keep perpetuating this false narrative,” she wrote in her undelivered comments, which she shared with Votebeat. “It undermines the trust in our electoral process and can lead to voter apathy, which is a threat to our democracy.”

Crowd noise disrupts Maricopa County meeting

In Maricopa County earlier Monday, election directors Scott Jarrett and Rey Valenzuela spent an hour explaining to the supervisors and audience all of the bipartisan checks and balances that were in place as they conducted the primary election.

Jarrett said there were no significant technological issues at the polls, and there was a mostly even split of Republican and Democratic poll workers.

It appeared they tried to get ahead of some questions as they explained certain procedures, such as a post-election hand-count audit of certain ballots that showed the machines worked accurately.

Still, some in the crowd sneered and laughed as the officials spoke.

The supervisors had to routinely pause and ask the audience members to stop talking among themselves. At one point, a county attorney, Tom Liddy, yelled back at a resident who appeared to be intentionally talking loudly on her cellphone behind him.

Interruptions like this have become common at the supervisors’ meetings in the last year, and the supervisors have added security walls and guards. It’s become even more tense than it was when supervisors voted to certify their general elections in 2020 and 2022, when protesters filled the auditoriums.

The supervisors have continuously defended the county’s election system, and did so again on Monday as public comment began. About 10 people told the supervisors not to certify the election.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you say how good of an election it was,” said one speaker, who didn’t present any evidence of mistakes or wrongdoing. “It wasn’t a good election.”

Barbara Hiatt, wife of Don Hiatt, who lost his bid in the Republican primary for county recorder, said she believed other countries, including Russia, had gotten rid of machines to count ballots, and said that Maricopa County should too, “because of the fraud that takes place.” Russia had online voting in its last presidential election, according to the Moscow Times.

Supervisor Thomas Galvin asked Barbara Hiatt if she trusted Russian’s elections more than those in the U.S. “At this point, I do,” she replied.

Just before voting to approve the results, Galvin said the 740,000 ballots cast in the election and the hundreds of candidates who ran for offices reflect “their faith in our system.”

As the supervisors voted unanimously yes, a woman walked up to the podium and tried to argue with them.

With the vote finished, and just as the woman began to yell, Chairman Jack Sellers called out: “This meeting is adjourned.”

Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Jen at jfifield@votebeat.org .