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JUDY WOODRUFF: Arizona has
been a hotbed for election
denialism since 2020. And

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misinformation is now
disrupting what is
typically a routine election
procedure. One of the state's

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15 counties failed to
meet yesterday's deadline
to certify this year's
midterm election results.

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Stephanie Sy has the details.

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STEPHANIE SY:
Judy, that's right.

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It was the Republican-dominated
Board of Supervisors in
Cochise County who voted not

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to certify the election
results by last night's
deadline. In response,
Arizona's highest election

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official, Secretary of State
Katie Hobbs, filed a lawsuit.
She is a Democrat and will

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be the next governor of
Arizona after she beat
Trump-endorsed opponent
Kari Lake in the midterms.

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Lake has also since filed
a lawsuit against Maricopa
County for its handling of the

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election. All those lawsuits
underlie the anger among
some Arizonans who spoke

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out at a public session
with Maricopa County's Board
of Supervisors this week.

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MAN: This is a war between
good and evil, and you
all represent evil.

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MAN: You are vote traffickers.
You are a vote trafficker.

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Criminal. So, a curse upon
you. A curse upon all of,
you smug, smug people.

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WOMAN: I will just say
that the voting booth
is supposed to be...

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MAN: Your time is up.

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WOMAN: ... a time for a peaceful
revolution. Those who make
peaceful revolution impossible

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make violent
revolution necessary.

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STEPHANIE SY: Right there
in the middle of that panel
of election officials,

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the man who joins us now,
the chairman of Maricopa
County's Board of Supervisors,

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Bill Gates, a self-described
lifelong Republican.

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Chairman Gates, it's
good to have you back
on the "NewsHour" here.

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Describe the acrimony you felt
at that meeting last night. And

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did the truth about the midterm
election come out in the end?

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BILL GATES (R), Chairman,
Maricopa County, Arizona,
Board of Supervisors:

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Yes, well, thanks for having me.

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Look, we -- my colleagues
and I agreed that it
was very important to
have public comment,

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to have people come and
speak about their concerns
about this election.

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It's an important part of the
process. And we were actually
just looking at some of

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our statistics on last
night's meeting. It was the
most people we have ever had

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watch one of our meetings from
looking at YouTube. So there's
a lot of interest in it.

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And there were some
strong words, no question
about that. But, again,

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that's everyone's right
to say those things.
Now, unfortunately, a
lot of those people who

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had a lot of bad things to say
about Maricopa County, once
they spoke, they left. So they

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didn't stick around to
hear the explanation of
the election by our two
co-directors of elections,

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in which they responded to
a lot of those questions
and issues that were raised.

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But, in the end -- this is the
important thing for everyone to
understand -- is that everyone

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who wanted to vote had
the opportunity to vote,
their vote was counted
if they were an eligible

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voter. And that's why my
colleagues and I voted
yesterday to certify the
canvass of the election.

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STEPHANIE SY: Yes, we should
say that four out of the five

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on your board in Maricopa County
are Republicans, like yourself.

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But, sir, you did have printer
problems on Election Day at
70 of the more than 220 voting

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locations. Do you think that
the printer issues provided
a pretext for unleashing

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misinformation? And do you have
any regrets about not staying
more on top of the equipment?

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BILL GATES: Well, we stayed
on top of the equipment. We
tested them in advance. And

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we were obviously surprised by
these issues with the printers.

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But I give great credit to
our team who went in, and they
determined what the issue was on

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Election Day and were
able to get those printers
back online and to get
the tabulators accepting

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the ballots. And here's the
important thing for people to
understand. Even if those voters

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who showed up on Election
Day were unable to run the
ballot through the tabulator,

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they had another option.
They could put the ballot
in a secure ballot box.

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In fact, in the majority
of counties in Arizona,

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that's exactly how it's done
on Election Day. They don't
have a tabulator on site. And,

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instead, they put their ballot
into a ballot box. And it's
counted back at central count.

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STEPHANIE SY: I understand
that, but were you concerned
about the perception?

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You knew that this needed to
be an airtight process. You
already had election denialists

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at the top of the ticket
for the Republican Party.
You had thousands of
Arizonans who -- many of whom

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I have interviewed questioning
the integrity of the election.
You knew it had to be airtight.

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BILL GATES: Yes, no --
no question about that.
We're disappointed that

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this happened. I said
yesterday during this meeting
there's no such thing as a

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perfect election. And it
certainly was not a perfect
election on Election Day.

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But what people need to
understand is that there were
redundancies in place. So it

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was a technical issue,
which created inconvenience
for people. But, again,

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people had that opportunity
to cast their vote.

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And, here in Maricopa County,
we have a hybrid system.
So you can vote by mail,

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and we have hundreds of
thousands of people who choose
that option. Also, for 27 days,

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people could vote in person. And
then, finally, Election Day was
that final option. In addition

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to the people who did show
up on Election Day to vote
in person, they could also...

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STEPHANIE SY: Right. Yes.

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I just want to move on to
the issue of Cochise. I'm
sorry. I want to move on to

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the issue of Cochise County,
because that is the one
county that has not certified

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the election results. And I
know you have a background
in election law, Chairman.

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So, I want to ask you, have
the Cochise County officials,

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have they committed a felony by
not fulfilling this duty? And
do you think it's possible that

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votes from Cochise could
be left out of the final
state tally next month?

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BILL GATES: Well, I'm not
sure whether they committed a
felony. But I can tell you this.

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It's the statutory
responsibility of the boards of
supervisors, all 15 of them for

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the 15 counties in Arizona,
to certify the canvas
by yesterday. We have 20
days from Election Day.

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So, by choosing not to, we
are now into unchartered
territory. We haven't seen

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this before. And that's one
of the reasons why there has
been -- there have been two

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lawsuits that have been brought
against the Board of Supervisors
down in Cochise County.

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My understanding is, they
have a hearing scheduled for
this Thursday at 1:00 p.m.,

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and the court will rule there.
The reality is, this probably
ends up going up through

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the appeals courts up
to the Supreme Court to
make a decision, because,
under Arizona law,

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the canvass must be
certified at the state level
by the end of next week.

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STEPHANIE SY: Bill Gates,
the chairman of the Maricopa
County Board of Supervisors,

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thank you so much for
joining the "NewsHour."

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BILL GATES: Thank you.