Election officials in battleground states across the country — both Republican and Democrat alike — are getting ahead of election misinformation, debunking baseless claims of fraud and issuing strong warnings against any attempts to delay election certification from rogue, election denying county and precinct-level officials. In some cases, they’re removing them before they have a chance to interfere.
Despite the warnings and debunking of conspiracy theories, experts tell TPM that a deluge of misinformation and attempts to obstruct the election process will likely still persist.
“The messaging from Trump-Vance has been, if we win it’s fair, if we lose, it was stolen,” Mark Kokanovich, a former federal prosecutor in Arizona and attorney at Ballard Spahr told TPM in an interview. “Every indication points that they’re going to do it again and they’re going to use every legal and illegal avenue they can, just like they did before.”
In Cochise County, Arizona, which has been a hotbed of election misinformation and election denialism since the 2020 election, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, announcing a recent plea deal in an election interference case, issued a strong warning against any possible future rogue election county clerks who might refuse to certify the results.
Republican Cochise County supervisor Peggy Judd was indicted last year after her refusal to certify the results of the 2022 election by the state’s mandatory deadline. Earlier this month, Judd pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, affirming in her plea agreement that she “knowingly” refused to certify the election on time.
In response to the announcement of Judd’s plea deal, Mayes warned against any such behavior this cycle: “Any attempt to interfere with elections in Arizona will not be tolerated. My office will continue to pursue justice and ensure that anyone who undermines our electoral system is held accountable,” she said in a press release this month.
“Today’s plea agreement and sentencing should serve as a strong reminder that I will not hesitate to use every tool available to uphold the rule of law and protect the integrity of Arizona’s elections,” she continued.
Kokanovich noted that the result of Judd’s case should “stand as a warning” to others considering delaying election certification moving forward.
“The state will prosecute you if you do it again,” he said.
Maricopa County supervisor Bill Gates also told TPM that Judd pleading guilty to a misdemeanor has “definitely sent the message to supervisors that this is a ministerial responsibility that they need to comply with.”
In Georgia, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has similarly been a reliable defender of the safety and integrity of Georgia’s election and has repeatedly declared that he will “defend the results of the election” no matter which candidate wins.
“I will make sure, and what I have made sure since 2018, that I will hold both parties accountable to you, the voters, of Georgia and I stand ready to defend the results of the election with election officials all across the state,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday.
He has also emphasized that state law mandates that counties certify election results by November 12. Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for Raffensperger’s office, previously said in an interview with TPM, regarding the mandatory certification of election results amid concerns about the state’s rogue election board’s new rules: “The safeguard is the law, which says that the boards of registration shall certify results no later than 5 p.m. on the Monday following the Tuesday election.”
Raffensperger has also been a consistent critic of the MAGA-controlled Georgia state election board, calling the board’s recently-rejected rules that would’ve given the board the power to delay election certification as “misguided” and likely to stoke “chaos.”
And this week in Michigan, which has also been ground zero for 2020 election misinformation, a pair of local election officials were promptly removed from their positions after announcing plans to hand-count ballots on November 5, which is a violation of state law.
In an October 28 letter to the local election officials, Michigan Elections Director Jonathan Brater wrote, according to the Detroit Free Press, that the pair’s plan to hand count ballots will interfere “with the integrity of the election process, undermine the county canvass, and jeopardize the ability of candidates to request a recount.” A spokesperson for the Michigan Secretary of State’s office told the New York Times, that the removal of these officials from their positions “speaks to the efforts that we are not going to tolerate any attempts to circumvent the law.”
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