Arizona Lawmakers Indicted After Delaying 2022 Election Certification
Lawmaker Peggy Judd previously told The Daily Beast that “I don’t wanna go to jail but we don’t see that happening.”
John Moore/Getty Images
A grand jury in Arizona this week voted to indict Cochise County supervisors Terry Thomas “Tom” Crosby and Peggy Judd on felony charges of conspiracy and election interference for their role in delaying the state’s certification of the 2022 election, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Wednesday.
Judd and Crosby worked to delay the certification of the county’s midterm results, citing a distrust of voting machines reminiscent of the pervasive lie spread across the Republican party by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen.
The pair eventually certified the results weeks after the midterms after a judge found their efforts in violation of the law and ordered them to end their delay.
This week’s indictment alleges the pair conspired to interfere with the secretary of state’s effort to complete the statewide canvass after the November election by refusing to certify the results.
Judd previously told The Daily Beast that “We’re just trying to get some answers to things about the machines.”
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“They keep telling us ‘That’s illegal. You’re gonna go to jail,’ but it hasn’t been so, you know, law is up to interpretation. Only the judge in the end can say,” Judd said in November 2022. “I don’t wanna go to jail but we don’t see that happening.”
Arizona has since sought to remove the election skeptics from having any such authority over the ballot counting process. The Judd and Crosby were investigated by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
“The repeated attempts to undermine our democracy are unacceptable,” Attorney General Mayes said in a statement Wednesday. “I took an oath to uphold the rule of law, and my office will continue to enforce Arizona’s elections laws and support our election officials as they carry out the duties and responsibilities of their offices.”
Judd did not immediately return a request for comment for this story.
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