by Corinne Murdock | Oct 9, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested an Iowa man for allegedly threatening Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman.
64-year old Mark Rissi reportedly told Hickman in a voicemail last September that he was going to lynch and hang him for being a “lying commie” for supporting the results of the 2020 election. Rissi also issued a similar threat to Hickman via a voicemail left with Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office in December.
“When we come to lynch your stupid lying Commie [expletive], you’ll remember that you lied on the [expletive] Bible, you piece of [expletive],” said the voicemail. “You’re gonna die, you piece of [expletive]. We’re going to hang you. We’re going to hang you.”
Although the DOJ press release announcing Rissi’s arrest didn’t identify Hickman as the subject of Rissi’s alleged threats, Hickman spoke out in a press release of his own to thank the DOJ and FBI. However, Hickman said that the DOJ’s actions weren’t enough because there were many other threats made to him, fellow supervisors, Recorder Stephen Richer, and numerous county elections staff.
Hickman also chided Arizonans “in positions of power [and] leadership [and] influence” for being silent.
“I’m speaking out today in hopes that others will follow. Whether it’s a person who shares your politics or your worldview or not, no one should be subjected to this kind of hatred,” stated Hickman. “And if we truly want to keep our country great, we will do everything we can to denounce threats against election workers and combat the disinformation that imperils our democracy.”
Maricopa County took another step to counter election disinformation recently. They launched a disinformation center and limited press access last week to control the narrative and manage the flow of information.
So far, the FBI has taken action against those who issued threats to elected officials critical of the 2020 election audit and claims of fraud. They haven’t made arrests for those threats made to Republican officials supportive of the audit, such as death threats given to Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) and State Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-Scottsdale).
In August, the FBI charged a Missouri man for threatening Richer. In July, they arrested a Massachusetts man for threatening Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
This latest arrest comes two days after the DOJ briefed 300 election officials and workers on available grant funding for physical election security enhancements, some of which may come from the American Rescue Plan; among those in attendance were election officials and their representatives from Arizona. The DOJ also updated the election officials on their Election Threats Task Force.
That task force, which launched last June, has reviewed over 1,000 contacts reported as hostile or harassing by the election community. The task force reported that only 11 percent of those contacts warranted an investigation. It’s unclear whether the threats faced by those such as Fann and Ugenti-Rita met the DOJ’s threshold.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed the arrested man as being from Illinois. The man is from Iowa, and the story has been corrected.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 7, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Earlier this week, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Republican Party of Arizona (RPAZ) filed two lawsuits against Maricopa County over alleged election transparency violations and unnecessary poll worker burdens. Early voting for the general election begins next Wednesday, and there’s about a month until Election Day.
In a joint statement, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and RPAZ Chairwoman Kelli Ward expressed concern that the county’s actions would shut poll workers out of the election process.
“With midterms just 34 days away, Arizonans deserve basic transparency about how their elections will be conducted,” stated the two women. “This legal offensive is the latest step in Republicans’ ongoing efforts to promote free, fair, and transparent elections in Arizona.”
The lawsuits concern the GOP’s unfulfilled records requests pertaining to poll worker staffing and the county staffing more Democratic than Republican poll workers for the primary election: 857 to 712. The RNC expressed concern that 11 vote centers at the time had no Republican poll workers, and that less than 30 percent of Central Counting Place Boards workers were Republicans while nearly 50 percent were Democrats.
The first lawsuit contended that Maricopa County wasn’t fulfilling records requests . The RNC documented that they submitted their first records request on September 9, then a follow-up records request on September 29 asking for records not fulfilled within their initial request. The lawsuit claimed that the county provided an indirect fulfillment of the initial request: the county forwarded the RNC a copy of an email originally sent from elections day and emergency voting director Scott Jarrett to a third party, which contained “narrative information” and addressed some, but not all, of the issues inquired about by the RNC.
Apart from that email, the lawsuit claimed that the county hadn’t provided all of the public records within both requests.
The second lawsuit contended that Maricopa County violated the state’s Equal Access Statutes and the Election Procedures Manual (EPM) during the primary election, and that the county would likely commit further violations for the upcoming general election. The GOP groups declared that the county established onerous working conditions for this election year: up to 14-hour work days throughout the early voting period, including weekends; a lack of a “bullpen” of election workers to backfill “foreseeable attritions” of the “inhospitable work conditions.”
According to that lawsuit, these working conditions caused over 500 election workers to quit their positions before the primary election. The lawsuit requested that the county reform its working conditions in order to align with election law and the EPM.
“Maricopa County nevertheless failed to meet the requirements of the Equal Access Statutes and the equal representation requirements of the EPM during the 2022 primary election,” stated the lawsuit.
On Wednesday, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates dismissed the RNC-RPAZ lawsuits as a “political stunt.” Richer and Gates insisted that it was “absurd” that they, as registered Republicans, would attempt to keep Republicans out of elections. In contradiction to what the second lawsuit stated, Richer and Gates claimed that the lawsuits don’t allege violation of election laws or procedures.
“We contact everyone on the lists the parties provide us,” stated the pair. “Maricopa County’s temporary election worker hiring practices ensure bipartisan representation throughout the election process and follow requirements established in state law and the Election Procedures Manual.”
The county also conflicted with the RNC’s timeline of its records request, contending that the RNC filed its records request on Monday.
Richer projected that the lawsuit would end in another legal victory for Maricopa County, adding to their current winning streak.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 2, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Just a month ahead of the November midterms, Maricopa County announced its new “Elections Command Center” to combat disinformation, and that it would limit press access on county property.
The first line of the press release issued on Tuesday emphasized that county officials across different fields of expertise teamed up together for the greater good when instituting these changes.
“Six elected officials and a team of elections and communications professionals are coming together as one ahead of the 2022 November General Election in Maricopa County,” stated the county.
With this new command center will come tighter restrictions on press access to the county. The county now requires the media to have press passes to enter its facilities and cover election events.
“Because of logistical and security considerations, it is impossible to give the public and media limitless access to Members of the Board of Supervisors, the County Recorder and election experts for events such as press conferences and availabilities,” stated the signup page.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Chairman Bill Gates indicated that the Elections Command Center would serve as an improved information dissemination platform compared to traditional social media and mainstream media outlets.
“The Command Center will further deliver on that promise by creating a structure that allows us to reach more people, faster, with factual information about how elections are run and how people can successfully participate,” said Gates.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer added that the county’s decision to establish an additional communications hub wasn’t an indictment of their recent management of the primary election, but rather a commitment to improvement.
“We ran a terrific primary election, but because of our ‘continuous improvement’ work ethic, we will have an incredible communications team assembled that will allow us to better respond to constituent concerns and combat misinformation during the General Election,” said Richer.
The Elections Command Center will be responsible for informing voters about deadlines and election processes, engaging with media, addressing mass-spread rumors and false information, and issuing updates on election results. Additionally, the command center officials will host live-streamed press conferences in the upcoming months.
The county implemented a similar command center in April 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Maricopa County Unified Command Center.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Sep 7, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
In an attempt to set voter expectations ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer shared that initial results would favor Democrats heavily.
Richer based his prediction on the voting patterns from November 2020 and last month’s primary election. Both elections first tabulated early ballots received the week beforehand, most of which voted for Democratic candidates. Then, the county tabulates early ballots dropped off the day before and on Election Day, as well as in-person ballots, most of which voted for Republican candidates.
“First moral of the story: in Arizona, initial results will likely be much bluer than eventual final results,” said Richer. “Second moral: if you want your ballot to be part of results released at 8:00 pm on Election Night, return it before the weekend before Election Day.”
Less than two weeks after last month’s primary election, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors released their canvas of the election results. Over 866,000 voters (35 percent of the 2.47 million registered voters) cast ballots in the primary election, over 87 percent of which were early voters.
According to the canvas, Republicans had a higher turnout than Democrats in Maricopa County: over 59 percent to just over 47 percent, respectively.
REVIEW PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS HERE
While Richer predicted the county’s potential initial outcomes for the midterms, the primary’s voter turnout and the county’s voter registration numbers hint at the potential final outcomes.
According to the county’s latest voter registration statistics in July, most voters identified as Republican. Over 854,000 voters were Republican (34.5 percent), while over 851,000 voters were “other” (34.4 percent) and over 748,000 were Democrats (30.2 percent).
For months, party switches have trended in the following order from least to greatest: other, Republican, Democrat, than Libertarian. In July, over 5,500 voters switched to “other,” over 4,500 switched to “Republican,” over 3,500 switched to Democrat, and over 400 switched to Libertarian.
Maricopa County’s pattern of voter registrations aligns with the state’s. According to the secretary of state’s latest voter registration statistics, there are over 1.4 million Republicans (34.5 percent), over 1.4 million “other” voters (33.7 percent), and nearly 1.3 million Democrats (30.9 percent). Less than one percent, or 32,600 voters, were Libertarian.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 28, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The two Yavapai County election leaders that made headlines for abandoning office in response to 2020 election-related threats have escaped to other elections-related roles.
Former Yavapai County Elections Director Lynn Constabile became the elections engagement manager last month for a nonprofit founded by former Big Tech leaders and advised by three chief technology officers from the Obama administration, U.S. Digital Response (USDR), and former Recorder Leslie Hoffman became Maricopa County’s director of recording services as of Monday.
Both abandoned their offices about a month before this latest primary election.
Constabile’s new employer, USDR, was co-founded in March of 2020 by its interim CEO, Jessica Cole: formerly a tech policy fellow at the Aspen Institute, an organization integral to the censorship of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story released weeks before the 2020 election.
USDR’s other co-founders were Alex Allain, CTO, formerly an engineering director for Dropbox; Emily Barlow, formerly an engineering program manager and global sourcing manager for Apple; Jessica Watson, formerly a product design director for Facebook; and Raphael Lee, formerly of Lob and Airbnb.
USDR admits that its founding purpose was to intervene in local election processes. Since 2020, co-founder Raphael Lee explained on LinkedIn that USDR has expanded operations to address a whole host of progressive initiatives: criminal justice reform, Afghan refugee resettlement, unemployment insurance reform, federal grant management, COVID-19 government messaging and vaccine distribution.
“In March of 2020, when COVID-19 came to the US, we organized a volunteer-run, non-partisan effort to help federal, state, and local government with technology, data, design, operations, communications, project management, and other needs during the crisis,” wrote Lee. “USDR became a fiscally sponsored nonprofit project in the summer of 2020.”
All three of USDR’s advisors hail were deputy chief technology officers in the Obama administration: Cori Zarek, Jennifer Pahlka, and Ryan Panchadsaram.
Among USDR’s partners is the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS). USDR’s major funders include the Rockefeller Foundation.
USDR has worked with 48 elections offices and nonprofits. Additionally, they report impacting 42 million people throughout 36 states, and worked with over 230 governments and organizations on over 300 projects.
As AZ Free News reported, Big Tech companies took a major interest in the 2020 election as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic arose that March. As one example, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg pumped his elections-focused nonprofit with over $350 million to execute what USDR desired to carry out.
In a press release Monday announcing Hoffman’s hire, the Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said that Hoffman was one of the first individuals he relied on when he assumed office.
“Leslie was one of the first people I reached out to upon taking office, and her experience and advocacy for the functions of this office make her a great fit for this position,” said Richer.
AZ Free News reached out to the recorder’s office for further comment on the implication of hiring an individual who resigned from office amid the midterms, days before the primary election. Their spokesman said that they had no comment beyond their press release, just that they were thrilled to have Hoffman’s experience.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
