Arizona election officials who refused to certify 2022 results charged
Phoenix, Arizona - Two rural Arizona election officials who attempted to block the 2022 results have been charged with crimes, Arizona's attorney general announced Wednesday.
Peggy Judd (61) and Tom Crosby (64) were charged with conspiracy and interfering with an election officer.
"The repeated attempts to undermine our democracy are unacceptable," Attorney General Kim Mayes said in a statement. "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 and Crosby are Republicans on the Cochise County Board of Supervisors, which is in charge of certifying elections in the 125,000-person county in southeast Arizona.
Following the elections in November 2022, Judd and Crosby refused to certify the results, even though no one was disputing them. They instead aligned with conspiracy theorists who doubted electronic voting machines.
Judd and Crosby's refusal led to procedural fights with statewide officials, which resulted in a court ordering Judd and Crosby to do their jobs. The county supervisors later met and voted 2-0 to certify the results. Crosby didn't show up.
"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 told the Daily Beast days before backing down and voting to certify.
The two supervisors have peddled Covid-19 vaccine conspiracies and election fraud conspiracies in the past. Judd was in attendance at the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol that attempted to prevent Joe Biden's electoral victory. She claimed she didn't go inside the building.
"I didn't think there was anything weird about marching on the Capitol" she told the Tucson Sentinel later that month. "I kind of almost felt like it was equal to the Martin Luther King march."
Cover photo: Collage: Cochise County