During the Sept. 16 public comment period, Tyler Stein, speaking for an organization he identified as Bridal Arizona Engagement, urged the Cochise County Board of Supervisors not to adopt a policy requiring hand counting of all paper ballots.

Stein told the board that hand counting is “more expensive, less accurate, and extremely slow,” and warned that counties that tried similar policies estimated costs “upwards to over $1,000,000” and would need more staff or volunteers to perform counts after election day. “If we go to a hand count system, this will cause election results to continue to be delayed even further than they are now causing delays in election certification,” Stein said.

He recommended instead expanding vote centers, hiring additional election staff and purchasing additional equipment to reduce day‑of wait times. Stein said voting machines have been proven effective to count ballots and produce timely results and asked the board not to consider switching to a hand‑count method.

Board members did not take action on election procedures at the meeting; staff noted that an upcoming executive session later the same day would consider technical aspects of voting system testing but no policy vote was on the Sept. 16 agenda.