Jonathan J. Cooper
PHOENIX (AP) — A local Arizona county whose leaders embraced a voting machine conspiracy Tuesday has promoted false claims that voter fraud cost former President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election election administration hired a person
Two Republicans of three members of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted to hire Bob Bartelsmeyer. Bob Bartelsmeyer shared a meme on his personal Facebook page supporting Trump’s fraud claims, furthering the lie that Dominion voting machines manipulated the results.
Fox News last week agreed to pay the Dominion voting system about $800 million to settle a defamation lawsuit after the network repeatedly aired claims of fake voting machines after the 2020 election.
Bartelsmeyer’s hiring is the latest controversial decision by a conservative majority in a Southeast Arizona county of 125,000 people to vote for Trump in 2020 by nearly 20 percent over Joe Biden. His two Republicans on the board, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, tried to hand-count ballots in last year’s midterm elections, but a judge said this was illegal. They then refused to certify the election results, forcing the judge to intervene again.
Bartelsmeyer, a former elections official for a small Arizona county, recently stepped down from her nonpartisan position after five years to succeed Lisa Marra, a well-respected elections official. Marra refused to do her count, as this is illegal.
After Mara resigned, the Republican board voted to give her office to elected Republican Rep. David Stevens, sparking a lawsuit from the Attorney General.
Stevens said Bartelsmeyer was the only one of the three applicants with experience running an election.
Arizona, a presidential battleground state with 11 electoral votes and a U.S. Senate seat that could be decided by just one percentage point, has been at the center of election intrigue since 2020. in Arizona. The following year, a review of a partisan ballot representing the legislative Republican Party confirmed Biden’s victory, but raised other unsubstantiated allegations of injustice. Continuing to fight against election defeat.
Bartelsmeyer has worked for the past year as an election administrator and deputy clerk in La Paz County on Arizona’s western border. Prior to this job, there is an unexplained 12-year gap in his resume. Prior to that, he held election jobs in Arizona, New Mexico, and Florida, and Lawrence County, Missouri, where he was elected clerk for 23 years.
In the months following Mr Trump’s downfall, he heavily posted about the conspiracy on his Facebook page, sharing memes and legal allegations aimed at his lawyers. Some were marked as misleading by Facebook.
One post he shared on Dec. 20, 2020 said, “Post and join me. Trump won legally by landslide.”
“In the 2020 election, America must survive as a democracy and demand electoral integrity and transparency for the America we know and love!!” Bartelsmeyer December 6, 2020 I am writing to
He said he was not working in the election at the time.
“Between 2016 and 2021, as a citizen, I am free to express my views,” he told the board.
Biden’s victory has been confirmed in multiple reviews, recounts, and audits in battleground states where Trump challenged his defeat, and allegations of fraud by Trump and his allies underpin his own administration. members, his former attorney general, and dozens of trials, including those overseen by judges he appointed. There is no evidence that fraud was widespread in the 2020 election.
Bartelsmeyer defended his credentials, citing 30 years of experience in elections and saying he wanted transparency and honesty. He said he supports using machines to count the votes, but wants confirmation that they are accurate.
“I’m not against machines,” Bartelsmeyer said. “I’m in favor of the machine. I think it’s 99.9% accurate. But I need a hand count to compare with the machine count to make sure everything is correct.”
Anne English, the only Democrat on the board, said she didn’t know about plans to hire Bartelsmeier until the decision appeared on the meeting agenda. I asked if Bartelsmeier’s application requesting not to contact some of his former employers was a “red flag”.
Meanwhile, spurred on by the county’s recent election move, Crosby District critics are gathering signatures in hopes of forcing a recall vote against him.
The county’s plans to hire Bartelsmeyer and his online posting were first reported by Votebeat. Half a dozen Cochise County residents urged the board not to hire Bartelsmeyer.
Jeff Sturges of Sierra Vista, the county’s largest city, urged Bartelsmeyer to “vote against hiring him in this election and deny the odd jobs” before Bartelsmeyer was confirmed. .
