Will there be a recall election for Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby?

Efforts to recall Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby failed after petitioners could not get the required number of signatures before the deadline. The Committee to Recall Tom Crosby spent months trying to collect enough signatures to trigger a recall election and needed just 565 more to meet the 4,865-signature requirement.

“In recent weeks, support for the recall had dramatically increased, with more and more people signing, ultimately yielding nearly 4,300 valid signatures. However, time ran out before the requirement was met,” the campaign said in a news release.

The recall efforts, which began in January, were led by the Committee to Recall Tom Crosby, a nonpartisan group, that had 120 days to collect the required number of signatures from voters in District 1, Crosby’s district. The last day was Wednesday, May 3.

According to state law, any public officer holding an elective office can be subject to a recall by the electors of the electoral district from which candidates are elected to that office.

The campaign and its supporters said Crosby, a former U.S. Border Patrol agent and Sierra Vista City councilmember, broke his oath of office when he and county Supervisor Peggy Judd risked disenfranchising Cochise County voters by refusing to certify the results from the November General Election.

The recall faced numerous challenges, the group said in the release, including restrictions on where it could place signs and stand with the petitions.

Arizona elections: 2 Cochise County supervisors must pay thousands in legal fees for election certification drama

The committee endured challenges

Some petitioners were harassed by community members and one local official.

The campaign found that some people were reluctant to get involved and some lack of understanding of the issues. They also found electors who believed the votes of Cochise County residents should not have counted, the campaign said in the news release.

Despite not having enough signatures, the committee said it was proud of what resulted from the recall efforts and the diversity of the coalition which included Democrats, Independents and Republicans working together. Many of these efforts increased awareness and education about who the county Board of Supervisors are and what they do.

The support of the recall was also found to be non-partisan with 60% of the signatures collected came from people who were not Democrats.

According to the group, people from across the country supported the recall and requested information on the possibility of recalling Judd, the other Cochise County supervisor who refused to certify the election until commanded by the court.

The group also noted how much education and awareness were cultivated from the recall.

“The team of over 60 volunteers working on this did an amazing job, and we are proud of what we accomplished together,” said committee Chair Eric Suchodolski. “This will not be the end — we will just continue in a different way, and it will take a bit longer. The community has something to build on.”

What caused the recall effort?

Recall efforts began this year after Crosby and Judd voted to hand count 100% of the county’s ballots from the November general election. That action was deemed illegal and blocked by Pima County Judge Casey McGinley.

After the election, the two supervisors refused to certify the election results and were court-ordered to do so by the judge. The vote to certify the election results passed with a vote of 2-0 with Judd and Supervisor Ann English voting for the certification. Crosby did not attend the court-ordered meeting to certify the results.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Effort to recall Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby fails