28-03-2025
Cochise County wants redo on tax hike election after judge found voter disenfranchisement
Cochise County wants a redo of an election that sought to hike taxes to pay for a new jail after a judge said the county disenfranchised thousands by failing to send ballots to inactive voters.
The tax measure sought to fund a new jail with a half-cent excise tax for 25 years. It passed with 52% of the vote in May 2023. The jail project is currently in its planning phase.
But four Cochise County residents — Daniel LaChance, Henry Stephen Conroy, Yvonne Mayer and Robert McCormick — argued in a June 2023 lawsuit the result was invalid because the county disenfranchised almost 11,000 voters on the inactive list by failing to send them ballots in an all-mail election. A person is put on the inactive voter list when mail sent to them by the county recorder has been returned undelivered multiple times. State law allows people on the inactive voter list to vote after confirming their address with an election official.
The plaintiffs contended that the outcome would have been different if the disenfranchised voters had voted.
The lawsuit was initially dismissed by a Cochise County Superior Court judge who failed to find any misconduct by the board. The case was appealed, and an Arizona Court of Appeals panel ruled the county did disenfranchise almost 11,000 voters on the inactive list.
Following that ruling, the county requested the Arizona Supreme Court review the case. But county supervisors reversed course after Cochise County voters elected two new board members in November.
Earlier this year, the board voted to withdraw the petition to the Supreme Court. It then voted on March 27 to settle the case, suspend collection of the jail district sales tax, hold a new election in November, and pay the plaintiffs $130,000 in attorney fees. The settlement agreement is contingent upon court approval.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes thinks the county is breaking Arizona law by trying to set aside the election results.
In response to the settlement, Mayes filed a motion for the Arizona Secretary of State to intervene.
"It appears that the existing parties to this action intend to seek this Court's approval of an agreement to set aside the results of an election, without meeting the requirements to do so under Arizona's election contest statutes," she wrote in the motion filed Tuesday.
Mayes also argued LaChance and the other plaintiffs must prove that the results of the election would have been different if inactive voters had been mailed ballots.
Jim Barton, a Democratic political attorney with Barton Mendez Soto in Tempe, told The Arizona Republic the move by Cochise County is unusual but likely legal.
'Since there's a lawsuit pending and it's in the context of a settlement, and the judge is overseeing that settlement in a way, perhaps it is OK,' Barton said.
The board's March 27 decision was unanimous, but it was a re-do of a vote roughly a week before. A do-over of the vote was required because the March 21 meeting agenda had the wrong court case number.
At the March 21 meeting, supervisors maintained they still want to build a new jail.
'We are committed to making sure things are done properly, specifically with regard to elections in the way elections are conducted in this county,' said Supervisor Frank Antenori after the March 21 vote. 'Part of setting it right is to make sure there is no doubt that there is public support to fund the jail through a sales tax.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why Cochise County officials want to redo jail tax hike election
