With just a few weeks until Election Day, election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, continue to face threats. The county has been a hotbed of voter fraud misinformation since former President Donald Trump lost to President Biden in 2020.

Trump lost Maricopa County to Biden in 2020 by 45,109 votes. The former president falsely claimed the election was stolen. Republican Steven Richer was elected Maricopa County Recorder in 2020. In 2021, he took over the role of recording voter registration and processing mail-in ballots in the county. He said he found no widespread fraud in the county’s 2020 election, which he considers “the most scrutinized election in human history.” Suspicions of fraud still persist.

Looking back at the 2020 election results

Richer took office after the 2020 election, when his party launched an armed wing amid allegations of fraud. It was Richer’s first elected office, and he knew what he needed to do.

“They just need answers,” Richer said she thought. “It’s not that complicated. It’s just that people are uncertain. They expected Donald Trump to win. I expected Donald Trump to win in Maricopa County. They didn’t win. They have questions. As soon as we give them a logical explanation, a fact-based answer, everything will be fine.”

But that didn’t happen. Multiple surveys were conducted. The Republican-led state Senate commissioned a manual recount of Maricopa County’s 2.1 million paper ballots, reaffirming Biden’s victory. Statewide, a total of 19 votes were charged with illegal voting.

In May 2021, President Trump said that “the entire Maricopa County, Arizona database has been deleted,” calling it an “unbelievable election crime.”

Richer remembers sitting in his office on Saturday afternoon looking at the database that Trump said he had deleted.

“The comical nature of it is just disgusting,” he said.

Richer called for an end to the “lies”.

“This is as unfalsifiable as saying two plus two equals five,” he said.

Election officials face threats

Richer faced threats after vocally advocating and defending the county’s results. After the 2021 meeting, Richer said he was heckled and chased to his car.

Three counts of violent threats against Richer were charged. Frederick Francis Goltzpled guilty to interstate threatening communications and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Others are awaiting trial.

The threats did not stop even after 2020. Just a few months ago, Richer was booed when he said he did not believe the 2020 election was stolen.

He’s not the only one facing threats. Republican Clint Hickman served as chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in 2020, which is responsible for certifying elections.

He has overseen the board for 11 years and was one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in 2020. In 2020, then-President Trump publicly thanked him at a campaign rally days before the election. But after all the votes were counted, Hickman found no evidence of fraud, he said as he and the Republican-majority Board of Supervisors voted to certify the county election. Since then, he says, he has been accused of treason and received death threats.

“We lost count. We lost count,” Hickman said. “So are my colleagues. So are election officials.”

In one instance, Hickman received a call from Mark A. Lisseythreatened to “lynch the stupid lying communists.”

Rissi was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to sending threatening messages and threatening to be hanged via voicemail. Hickman recalled calling another message he received “appalling.”

The caller said, “‘We know the restaurant you’re in, and we know where your kids go to school,'” Hickman said.

Suspicions of fraud continue

Maricopa County Republican Party Vice Chair Shelby Bush has launched a political action committee to investigate widespread fraud in Maricopa County elections.

“What I’m doing is shining a big bright light on the disrespect and arrogance of some elected officials,” she said. “They are elected to represent the interests of the people, and until they are ready to stand up and do that, there will be unrest.”

Mr. Bush believes he violated state laws and regulations. She still questions whether signature verification was adequate and whether some ballots were collected illegally. In a recent case, a judge disqualified Mr. Bush, a medical site administrator, from testifying as an expert, saying he was “clearly unqualified…he hasn’t even been on the gridiron.”

“This is the opinion of a judge who is a radical leftist who is legislating from the court, and I don’t think that added any credibility whatsoever to me,” she said.

“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Perry asked Bush if he risked undermining public confidence in the election system by continuing to share unconfirmed conspiracy theories about the election.

Mr. Bush disagreed with Mr. Perry and said he believed the fraud charges were proven.

“I don’t need government officials who have a vested interest in disproving information to tell me whether the information I have is valid or not. As a member of this society, I have the right to consider the evidence, think for myself, and make my own decisions. It’s up to each and every citizen to make those decisions,” she said.

Mr. Bush called on people to decide what was true, saying he had no time to worry about whether people believed him.

“I have what I believe is my mission, and that mission is for my children and grandchildren,” she said. “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to work.”

In a videotaped speech earlier this year, Mr. Bush said he intended to “lynch” Mr. Richer.

“If Stephen Richer walked into this room, I would lynch him,” she said in March. “I will not stand together with people who do not believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country.”

Mr. Bush later said he was referring to a “political lynching.”

“It’s said to be about destroying someone’s career. That was never meant physically in any way, shape, form,” Bush said. “Maybe it was a poor choice of words.”

Future developments for Maricopa County

Richer fought to protect the legitimacy of Maricopa’s elections, but lost reelection in the Republican primary in July.

“I’ve become much more cynical about politics. There are a lot of people who don’t have boundaries. There are a lot of politicians,” Richer said. “For many politicians, it’s like oxygen, and if you say you’re not going to get re-elected, it’s like the oxygen is turned off. So no matter which way the wind blows, even if it’s a very immoral That’s what they do, even if it’s during the ride. ”

He is concerned about what will happen on Nov. 5 and the possibility that allegations of widespread fraud and threats of violence against election workers will continue afterward.

Fighting allegations of election fraud across the country

Arizona is not alone in its 2020 campaign dealing with false claims of widespread election fraud. A group of prominent conservatives, including attorney Ben Ginsburg, spent a year investigating claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The group, which includes conservative judges and senators,Lost but not stolen” An investigation that exposes lies about election fraud.

“There is absolutely no evidence to support any allegations of fraud or that the election cannot be trusted,” Ginsburg said.

Part of the report focuses on President Trump’s battleground state lawsuits.

“Donald Trump and his supporters filed 64 lawsuits, 63 of which were completely defeated,” Ginsburg explained. The case they won involved a small number of votes and was “far from determining the outcome,” he says.

Election deniers say they lost the case because the judge was not impartial.

“Under the rule of law, you have every right to sue,” Ginsburg said. “But as long as I have practiced election law, under the rule of law, conservative and Republican principles, I must accept the court’s decision.”