PHOENIX — Maricopa County has been at the center of election conspiracy theories and result denials in both of the past two elections. The team behind the vote is currently considering how a larger effort to increase transparency and explanation of the process could help.

In 2020, the Maricopa County Counting and Elections Center saw hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators, some armed, gather outside the facility in the days following the election, with the election held by then-President Donald Trump. He claimed without evidence that it had been stolen from him.

In 2022, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake once again fueled election conspiracy theories after dozens of vote tabulation machines malfunctioned, causing delays.

And in 2024, the latest wave of election denialism was already brewing even before Tuesday’s primary date.

Following an onslaught of misinformation, disinformation, and noise surrounding elections in Maricopa County (one of the closest states in the country, where more than 2 million people voted in 2020), county election officials They were urged to take measures to increase the transparency of the tabulations. election center. Maricopa also invested about $15 million in new equipment to deliver results more quickly and reduce the skepticism that comes with them.

One of the steps the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has taken to increase transparency is installing more surveillance cameras at counting centers and allowing Arizonans to monitor proceedings from their homes. A new batch of cameras will provide surveillance at return box locations, seven different angles at counting centers, and four during ballot processing (verifying signatures on mail-in ballots before the ballots themselves are counted). A total of more than 20 cameras were deployed, including different angles. happens.

All of these video angles Maricopa County Website.

“If the cameras weren’t working, people would probably say, ‘What’s going on when the cameras aren’t working?'” Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said. . He will not run for another term in 2024. Last year, he said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. This was due to a wave of harassment stemming from his role in administering elections.

In an interview with NBC News, Gates broke down the huge investment in county election equipment starting in 2022. Of the $15 million in new equipment, he said $9 million will be for a new printer and $6 million for a new high-speed tabulation machine.

“One of the issues that people are questioning is how long it takes to count all the ballots,” Gates said. “This investment in a new high-speed aggregation tool will speed up that process a bit.”

The main obstacle to speedy counting is the destruction of mail-in ballots that arrive just before or on Election Day. Mail-in ballots require signature verification, which is a time-consuming process. (If someone votes in person, their signature is verified when they check in at the polling place, which means their vote can be counted more quickly.) Voting by mail has been popular in Arizona for years.

So far, Maricopa’s efforts toward efficiency and transparency have not quelled the latest skepticism. Former Maricopa County elections official Charged with stealing security fob Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda obtained jewelry collected from election centers, as well as jewelry from museums and several items from the state Capitol, and said the incident was part of a conspiracy to reduce Republican voter turnout. It seemed like he was hinting that he was part of it.

“I’m starting to wonder if people are intentionally undermining trust and not making sure we have a system in place where people will give up and not vote,” Swoboda said in a local news interview in late June. She then continued to threaten the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

And in the wake of the CrowdStrike outage that affected early voting locations in Arizona earlier this month and affected large swaths of American life, including airline reservations, the Republican National Committee and the Arizona Republican Party A letter has been sent to the Director of Elections. demand an answer.

Referring to Swoboda’s comments, Gates said, “We have a job to do here, and we cannot accomplish our mission of holding an election without strong collaboration with the major political parties.”

“Even if they say things that are irresponsible and untrue, that won’t throw us off track,” Gates added.

Perhaps the biggest pusher of election-related conspiracy theories in the state is Lake, who is seeking the Republican Senate nomination on Tuesday. After losing the gubernatorial race to current Governor John Johnson, she pushed baseless claims of election fraud. Two years ago, Katie Hobbs attacked Maricopa County elections as part of her campaign this term.

“If Mohave County gets 100 percent or close to 100 percent, no matter what we do, there’s no way Maricopa County can cheat our way out of this,” Lake said at a Mohave County rally this spring. . “You know the garbage they shove in there,” Lake added.

“Maricopa County is dishonest and corrupt and there is no accountability,” Lake said in a May local radio interview.

The noise and false claims have taken a toll on Gates and others working on elections in Maricopa County.

“For the past four years, we’ve been dealing with death threats,” Gates said.

Gates, a lifelong Republican, added: “People within the party are claiming we are traitors and trying to rig the election, which is very frustrating.”

Besides Gates, another election official bearing the brunt in Maricopa County is Rep. Stephen Richer of Record, who is up for re-election this year and faces a Republican primary challenger on Tuesday. In June he I posted a video on X Shelby Bush, chair of Arizona’s delegation to the Republican National Convention, said she would “lynch” him if given the chance. This video is from the conservative video platform Rumble’s livestream event held in Mesa on March 20th.

Gates hopes Arizonans will remember the humanity behind the work being done.

“You know, these are not faceless bureaucrats. These are not just machines doing this work,” Gates said. “There are thousands of people here in Maricopa County: our aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and we want to make sure people know the facts and the great work they do. “I have an obligation to do it.” ”