The Committee to Recall Tom Crosby announced last night, “with disappointment,” that it failed to collect enough signatures by deadline to trigger an election to oust the controversial Cochise County supervisor.

Crosby dragged the county to court twice for his refusal to certify the 2022 election and an attempt at a full hand count of ballots. He, along with his fellow Republican board member Peggy Judd, have continually expressed distrust in tabulation machines and invited in election-denial aligned speakers.

Eric Suchodolski, spokesperson for the committee, said Cochise County voters, “didn’t like essentially having their rights trampled on. Their votes were at risk, everybody’s votes regardless of party were put at risk for a political stunt.”

The recall effort started in January. And in line with Arizona law governing recalls, the committee had 120 days to collect 4,865 signatures.

In the wording of the petition, the committee cited Crosby’s attempts to “obstruct our county’s election process,” which “resulted in unwarranted expenses to taxpayers” incurred in lawsuits.

Crosby and Judd have kept Cochise County in headlines as they passed a resolution to hand count all ballots cast in the 2022 general election, despite warnings from the county attorney that the move conflicted with state election law.

The county was then met with legal action from the Secretary of State’s Office and the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, and a judge promptly barred the attempt.

The supervisors then sued former elections director Lisa Marra for refusing to go forward with the illegal hand count, though they withdrew the suit a few days later.

Supervisors ended up in court again in November after refusing to certify the 2022 election by a state deadline. The judge in the case ruled from the bench and ordered the supervisors canvass the election that same day.

Marra then departed the county, citing a hostile workplace and the lawsuit filed against her.

The supervisors then brought the county to court again as they passed a motion to organize all election duties under Recorder David Stevens, who holds some of the same skepticism about elections.

The board was met with a suit by the Attorney General’s Office, though, the judge ruled the move to be lawful.

Most recently, the county hired Bob Bartelsmeyer, formerly of the La Paz County Elections Department, to take over as elections director. But Bartelsmeyer was met with backlash at the board hearing to affirm his hiring as residents cited posts Bartelsmeyer had shared doubting the outcome of the 2020 election.

At board meetings, Crosby has consistently met criticism from Cochise County residents, spurring about 60 members of his district to spearhead the recall effort.

Petitioners collected nearly 4,300 signatures but fell short of the required 4,865.

In a press release, organizers said “the challenges this effort faced were many including… even a belief among some that the votes of the people of Cochise County should not have counted.”

The release also notes more than half of the signatures gathered were from non-Democrats.

Recorder Stevens said they notified the office yesterday they had fallen short in collecting signatures.

Suchodolski said though the effort failed, they succeeded in getting more residents involved in issues impacting them at the county level. Going forward, the committee plans to continue the push for further civic education and engagement in local government.

“We all wanted to show that we’re not all nuts down here,” Suchodolski said. “A number of us want to return to a more sane local government that is boring.”