Maricopa County’s Republican voters declined to reelect Stephen Richer for recorder, instead electing his opponent, State Representative Justin Heap.
Richer lost despite having a well-funded and diverse network of bipartisan support, as well as a unique platform with the media after Heap was mistakenly denied the chance to participate in a televised debate.
In an X post, Richer said that he accepted the results and would “move on.” Richer pledged to carry out his duties in his remaining months in office, while making claims about the successes of his administration: improved voter rolls and flawless mail voting.
“[O]ne of my friends said the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office is basically like teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. It’s cursed. So best wishes to my successor!” said Richer.
It's been a privilege. Thank you.
Elections have winners and, sadly, losers. And in this one, it looks like I'm going to end up on the losing side of the column.
But that's the name of the game. Accept it. Move on.
Congratulations to @azjustinheap on winning the primary…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) July 31, 2024
In his victory statement doubled as a campaign donation pull, Heap said that he would “end the laughingstock elections” of Maricopa County perpetuated under Richer.
Today is an exciting day in Arizona and a great day for America!
This November, we will end the laughingstock elections that have plagued our county, state and nation.
Let me be clear, this is the second most important race after re-electing President Donald Trump on the ballot… pic.twitter.com/qMOL9m2M8p
— Az State Rep. Justin Heap (@azjustinheap) July 31, 2024
Richer himself was also bipartisan with his voting choices. Earlier this summer, the recorder announced he would vote to reelect Democratic President Joe Biden rather than former President Donald Trump.
In the months leading up to that announcement, Richer hinted at his apparent party ambivalency.
Last year, Richer dismissed the importance of certain social issues that make up a major portion of the GOP platform: transgender activism, woke corporations, and critical race theory, among them.
The recorder’s ousting marks a close to a controversial and heated tenure kicked off by the 2020 election and similar contentions renewed in the 2022 election.
To Richer, contentions with the 2020 election were largely unfounded. Richer strongly opposed the election audit.
The 2022 election, the first under Richer’s watch, experienced significant failures of election machines leading up to and on election day. The issues prompted an investigation by then-outgoing Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Richer used the attention from the election machine failures to fundraise for his reelection campaign.
Richer also doubled the number of vote centers, a point of contention for GOP voters due to beliefs that vote centers allow for easier ballot harvesting.
In 2022, Richer worked with the Biden administration on plans for speech moderation. Richer suggested that the government hold “bootcamps” for media outlets to improve election reporting.
Later that year, Richer deleted a tweet celebrating his prevention of a certain media outlet from having access to the county as part of a newly created press pass system. A federal court later ruled that Richer’s press pass denial was violative of the First Amendment. Richer later deleted his celebratory tweet.
Shortly after rolling out the press pass restrictions, the county launched a disinformation center.
Richer has also defended the much-maligned mail-in ballots as less problematic than in-person voting, as well as unmanned drop boxes.
Earlier this year, we reported on Richer tasking staff with compiling articles and online content pertaining to his personal defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake for her claims of the 2022 election, which marked her defeat against now-Governor Katie Hobbs.
Richer was also involved with the Republican Accountability Project, a Democratic dark money group that spent millions to ensure the defeat of 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
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The famous poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson from the 1800s once quipped, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying.” This is especially true when observing how our elected officials operate our government.
Per several posts on X, voters recently received a text blast referencing Vice President Kamala Harris as the “presumptive Democrat nominee” and chiding her “radical” left election policy positions, including “same-day voter registration, no voter ID, and more federal control of our elections.” The text blast made a policy commitment on behalf of the current Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer to protect us from these extreme policies.
How is he going to defend against Kamala's radical policies if he's voting for her!? pic.twitter.com/nplbCEi7d1
— Rep. Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) July 29, 2024
But when presented with the opportunity to codify such protections into law, the Maricopa County Recorder’s track record tells a different story.
In the 2022 legislative session, State Representative Jake Hoffman introduced bill HB2237, which would have made same-day voter registration illegal in Arizona.
It was a very simple bill that just stated:
Same-day voter registration is a scheme from the left to overwhelm County Recorders with thousands of registrations on Election Day or during a voting period. This makes it nearly impossible to confirm if someone is actually a legal citizen resident of Arizona before providing them with a ballot.
Currently, throughout the year, but especially at the last minute right before voter registration election deadlines, many groups in Arizona, especially from the left, have generous paid programs to register voters. They often don’t submit completed forms, creating complications for election workers. Jen Fifield from Vote Beat recently reported on the issues caused by this.
NEW: Hundreds of Arizonans who tried to register to vote just before Tuesday’s primary election were blocked from the rolls because of a problem with their paper forms, @VotebeatUS analysis found.https://t.co/Rye0LtDxmV
As the article mentions, these same extreme left groups advocate for same-day voter registration, and many pushed their members and lobbyists to sign in against HB2237 in 2022. Even Katie Hobbs’ Secretary of State Office signed in against the bill, while conservative groups like the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Heritage Action signed in favor of banning same-day voter registration.
You would think that at such a moment as this bold, simple bill, the Maricopa County Recorder could take a strong stand and defend his employees and the voters from such an insane policy from the left. Unfortunately, neither the Recorder’s Office, his office’s lobbyist, nor the associations for the recorders and counties took a position on the bill. The Maricopa County Recorder didn’t show up to testify for or against the bill either.
Complete silence.
When it comes to voter ID, it gets much worse.
The Arizona Legislature added Proposition 309 to the 2022 ballot, which would have added a voter ID requirement on early ballots. It was a simple proposal that the Recorder’s Office was previously on record as supporting in principle, per public records.
When the bill was brought before the Legislature, the Arizona Association of Counties opposed it. There is no record of the Recorder or his lobbyist associations taking a position on the bill or offering amendments.
When the proposition made it to the ballot, the Maricopa County Recorder not only publicly opposed voter ID for early voting but also used government resources to do so.
The Arizona County Recorders (people who oversee early voting) OPPOSE Proposition 309.
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) October 11, 2022
I found this strange since all my previous interactions with Recorder Richer, from working on his 2019 “election integrity” report to conversations with his office on policy to a coffee meeting I had with him one-on-one in 2021, all indicated that his position was that signature verification alone wasn’t sufficient to secure elections and that some sort of voter ID mechanism was needed to secure early ballots.
It's interesting that you flipped your position on the effectiveness of signature verification, @stephen_richer, because last we met you affirmed that our findings from our election audit report still remained & signature review process is not sufficient to secure our vote pic.twitter.com/rHtEpIzleW
July 23, 2021, @stephen_richer told me at a coffee meeting his department has no way to legitimately verify signatures and the voter rolls were a complete mess
He said he needed at least two more identifiers to confidently confirm voter identity and stop ballot harvesting https://t.co/FXGjnqAvb2
— Merissa Hamilton 🗳 ⛽ 🗽🔥 (@merissahamilton) May 9, 2023
The Arizonans for Voter ID organization sent a letter to the Arizona Attorney General admonishing Recorder Richer for violating the law by using his government office resources to advocate against the ballot referral.
.@stephen_richer did this to voice his feelings on #Prop309 which ensures everyone shows ID, and wrongly claimed unanimous support for his letter, which doesn't exist. We hope @GeneralBrnovich protects our elections from the inappropriate influence of the Recorder's Office. pic.twitter.com/ifbsVfRZkT
The voter ID proposition ended up failing by 18,488 votes and only by 2.5% in Maricopa County.
Fast forward two years. The Maricopa County Recorder’s letter on Prop 309 is scrubbed from the internet now that he’s running for re-election, and text blasts are going out stating he will defend voter ID.
To be clear, the current Maricopa County Recorder not only has multiple associations at his disposal to advocate for or against policy, but he also has his own lobbyist for his office. With all these lobbying resources, his opponent Rep. Justin Heap was recently featured on the Mike Broomhead show as stating that although he’s served on the Legislature’s House Elections Committee for the last two years, he’s never seen the Maricopa County Recorder at the Legislature. Heap says Recorder Richer has been a “hindrance” in passing needed laws, such as those to fight radical left policies.
When it comes to federal laws, as I mentioned in my piece on AZ Free News last week, the current Recorder has also been silent on his award-winning X platform in advocating for the Speaker Johnson-supported SAVE Act to require proof of citizenship for voters in federal elections.
One thing is for certain, while the current Maricopa County Recorder has taken a back seat when it comes to defending voters from radical left policies, Maricopa County voters are certainly desperate for our county recorders to use their resources to give us a stronger voice in standing up for policies that would strengthen the security and trust in our elections.
Merissa Hamilton is the founder and chairwoman of the nonpartisan nonprofit organizations Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona and Strong Communities Action, also known as EZAZ.org, which are focused on making civic education and action as easy as pie. She’s an elected Member at Large of Congressional District 1 for the Arizona Republican Party and previously ran for Mayor in 2020. Merissa is also the Director of Integration and Policy at The R.O.A.R. PAC, which is on a mission to restore our American Republic.
This should be especially alarming since the number of voters who haven’t provided proof of citizenship and cannot be confirmed as citizens has increased by over 32% since last October in Maricopa County. Arizona law requires that voter registrants must provide documentary proof of citizenship. However, these federal-only voters are allowed to register to vote in federal races because a Supreme Court decision from 2013 held that federal law does not allow states to ask for documentary proof of citizenship in federal races such as for Congress and the U.S. Senate. And that may even extend for presidential electors (the issue being litigated right now). For federal races, voters only need to attest to being a citizen by checking a box on the federal voter registration form and signing the form. Only a little over 10,000 votes determined the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election in Arizona, yet over 26,000 federal-only voters are currently registered to vote in Maricopa County.
The AFL letter went to all 15 Arizona County Recorders as a reminder of their obligation “to remove foreign citizens” from their voter rolls. It outlines additional tools the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has available, as codified by Congress under 8 U.S.C. § 1373 and 8 U.S.C. § 1644, to assist county recorders in their legal obligations to ensure only U.S. citizens are registered to vote.
According to the letter, Arizona law requires recorders “to consult ‘relevant federal databases to which the county recorder has access to confirm information obtained that requires cancellation of registrations,’” per A.R.S. § 16-165(K).
While it’s a state and federal crime for foreign nationals to register to vote, just making something illegal doesn’t prevent bad actors from breaking the law like other crimes. In fact, under the Trump administration, ICE indicted 19 foreign nationals for voting in the 2016 election illegally.
Since Arizona is a border state, why wouldn’t county recorders in Arizona want to make sure they are utilizing every possible tool to prevent foreign nationals from accessing a ballot in our election? And what more can they do to protect our voting rights and ensure citizens’ votes aren’t effectively neutralized by a foreign national illegally casting a ballot?
AFL brilliantly provides a path by using federal statutes, 8 U.S.C. § 1373 and 8 U.S.C. § 1644, that require DHS to provide the information. It isn’t hard for DHS to get this information through its Person Centric Query System (PCQS) database. As the letter explains:
“[The PCQS database] allows agency employees to look up individuals and quickly and easily verify their citizenship status using only a name and date of birth. This means that, right now, DHS can answer all of your inquiries about the citizenship status of all presently registered voters and all persons attempting to register to vote and do so at no cost. You already have the authority to submit citizenship inquiries about registered voters to DHS, and you can demand immediate responses from DHS.”
There is no additional cost to the taxpayers, and we can protect the voters! Where is the “Sign My County Recorder Up” button for doing his or her job?
There’s another level of required scrutiny that’s also not happening in Arizona, and that’s where the Attorney General comes into play. AFL states that per state law, county recorders are “required to send ‘to the attorney general a list of all individuals who are registered to vote and who have not provided satisfactory evidence of citizenship’” so that the Attorney General may fulfill her obligation “to use all available resources to verify the citizenship status of the applicant[s].’”
Don’t hold your breath that this will happen under the current Maricopa County Recorder regime anytime soon! Stephen Richer’s attorneys replied to AFL’s letter, refusing to take any action.
When asked, he usually shrugs off the concern about foreign nationals on the voter rolls, arguing that federal-only voters are concentrated on college campuses, as if that somehow makes it OK. He’s even gotten to the point of challenging Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk for questioning any voter in Arizona not needing to provide proof of citizenship to vote:
BLUF: Arizona had a documented proof of citizenship law for all voters, but that was invalidated by US Supreme Court in 2012 (Arizona v. ITCA) because it conflicted with federal law. Therefore only applies to state voters.
Longer:
We've done this before a few times… But…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) July 8, 2024
He also says federal-only voters have lower turnout than average voters, so there is nothing to worry about….
Hi. This is the correct in terms of the fed only voters who participated in the 2020 GE in Maricopa County.
Few points looking at above:
1) It is ILLEGAL to vote in federal elections in all 50 states if you are not a U.S. Citizen. These names are public records. In Arizona,…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) April 16, 2024
Except the public doesn’t know how many federal-only voters cast ballots, as the number is not reported in the official statewide canvass by the Arizona Secretary of State.
While the current Maricopa County Recorder has published in his campaign communications that he thinks documented proof of citizenship should be required to vote in federal elections, adding that it’s not “an undue burden,” he stated that it’s the job of Congress to change the law.
Hi Stacey!
Great question. Yes, we do count "Fed only" ballots. As does every county in Arizona. Because it is required by federal law.
Hope it helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Stephen
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 18, 2024
This is true. That would certainly help!
In the same campaign email, he stated that he supports Speaker Johnson’s proposal, the SAVE Act, which would require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote for federal elections. Still, he’s never come out on his award-winning X account to support the SAVE Act or Speaker Mike Johnson’s bold support of this game-changing legislation to secure our elections.
Here’s my friendly reminder that this is the same Recorder who was accused of using public resources to advocate against additional security measures for voting by mail. So, he’s certainly not averse to going out of bounds when fighting for or against a policy he favors.
Former President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “I have always had a horror of words that are not translated into deeds, of speech that does not result in action.”
The Maricopa County Recorder’s latest rebuff of AFL’s letter to take steps that clearly aren’t an undue burden on his office to keep the voter rolls clean, his lack of transparency on the issue of federal-only voters’ voting habits, his constant diminishing of concerns from the public, and his lack of public support for the SAVE Act certainly screams the loudest when it comes to where he truly stands on the issue.
If only there were someone who could provide a Diet Coke explainer video to show the current Recorder why Maricopa County citizens deserve election administration in which every possible effort is made to prohibit foreign nationals from accessing a ballot to cast a vote in our elections, maybe we would have a better chance at that “Sign My County Recorder Up” button functioning in Maricopa County.
Photo from the Maricopa County Recorder video published on X here.
Merissa Hamilton is the founder and chairwoman of the nonpartisan nonprofit organizations Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona and Strong Communities Action, also known as EZAZ.org, which are focused on making civic education and action as easy as pie. She’s an elected Member at Large of Congressional District 1 for the Arizona Republican Party and previously ran for Mayor in 2020. Merissa is also the Director of Integration and Policy at The R.O.A.R. PAC, which is on the mission of restoring our American Republic.
A leftist billionaire has a vested interest in the reelection of Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.
Campaign mailers paid for by Women for Justice disclosed that venture capitalist and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman was one of the three top donors in their effort to support Richer, in addition to Sac Holdings and Robert Granieri.
Women for Justice is a leftist nonprofit advocacy group formerly known as Women for Bernie Sanders 2016.
Hoffman rose up over the last decade as one of the most influential Democratic donors against former President Donald Trump. Since 2015, Hoffman has contributed nearly $64.7 million to left-wing causes per FEC records. This election cycle alone he has contributed over $28 million, though FEC records don’t reflect any direct Arizona contributions.
This wouldn’t be the first time Hoffman has backed a candidate with an “R” by their name. In 2022, Hoffman contributed $2,000 to former House Speaker Rusty Bowers’ reelection bid.
Prior to that, in 2021 Hoffman contributed $5,300 to then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign.
In an effort to beat Trump in a reelection, Hoffman founded FWD.us, and has served as a financial backer for the Hopewell Fund, an arm of the Arabella Advisors dark money network.
Hoffman spent $100 million of his own funds to defeat Trump and the GOP in 2020, and created the Investing in Us tech finance company to defeat Republicans.
In pursuit of his goal to eliminate Trump and allied GOP members, Hoffman’s Investing in Us organization, in an “experimental” initiative led by former Obama administration federal agents, orchestrated a fake news social media campaign in the 2018 Alabama special election to undermine GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore. Although Hoffman apologized when caught, he never published the disinformation policies to prevent similar incidents from occurring as promised.
In 2021, Hoffman teamed up with dark money megadonor George Soros to back a disinformation-tackling media firm led by Democrat strategist Tara McGowan, Good Information Inc., and the nonprofit she previously ran, ACRONYM.
ACRONYM spent $100 million to defeat Trump; financed Shadow, a company responsible for the delayed reporting of the Iowa caucus results; and launched Courier Newsroom, a network of seven news sites at the time positioned in swing states that prompted a Federal Elections Commission (FEC) complaint for allegedly disguising the true nature as a political committee. One of those news sites, The Copper Courier, exists in Arizona.
More recently, Hoffman funded the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit against Trump for publicly denying her 2019 book claim that he sexually assaulted her in either 1995 or 1996.
This month, Hoffman announced his intent to invest millions into Smartmatic, the voting technology company embattled by claims of rigged vote counting after the 2020 election, in their lawsuit against Fox News.
Richer admitted in a recent interview that, although he has been a Republican, he plans to vote for Joe Biden in November.
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Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer plans on voting to reelect President Joe Biden this November, despite identifying publicly as a Republican and having voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Richer clarified his voting intentions during an interview with AZ Family after the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (ACCEC) debate earlier this month.
“I voted for President Trump in 2020. And who am I planning on voting for [in November]? President Biden,” said Richer.
The current Maricopa County Recorder is a Republican who admitted yesterday that he is going to vote for Joe Biden in the 2024 Presidential Election 🚫
It is time to replace the current Recorder in the upcoming Republican Primary in July!
— Az State Rep. Justin Heap (@azjustinheap) June 25, 2024
Despite pledging to vote for Biden, Richer has remained critical of the president. On Friday, the recorder reposted a remark from Elon Musk mocking the Democratic Party for its declaration that Biden won the first presidential debate on Thursday. He also reposted an article from The Bulwark advocating for Biden to drop out of the race.
Richer’s voting choices haven’t been the only source of contention for his constituents and Arizonans in recent weeks.
Richer endured criticisms in relation to the recent arrest of an elections worker, 27-year-old Walter Ringfield Jr., who stole keys and a fob to the Maricopa County Elections Building last week and has also been placed under investigation for stolen items out of the Senate earlier this month. Ringfield was tasked with assisting in logic and accuracy testing, cleanup of tabulation machines, and various paperwork within the ballot tabulation center.
The stolen items were a magnetic security key which assists in activating ballot tabulation machines and a key unlocking the pins atop the tabulation machines.
The stolen election items cost the county over $20,000 in damages, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in a press conference earlier this week.
While Richer’s opponent, State Representative Justin Heap, accused Richer of overlooking Ringfield’s criminal past to hire him, Richer says he did no wrong.
“He didn’t have a felony on his record. You know a charge is different from a conviction,” said Richer. “He was caught. Immediately. Credit to the Board. System worked. He’s in custody. No harm was done.”
1) This just shows, again, you don't know the office, @azjustinheap. The guy was working in TABULATION (not under the Recorder's Office). Do your homework.
2) He didn't have a felony on his record. You know a charge is different from a conviction. You're a criminal defense… https://t.co/HmJTHErGgZ
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 28, 2024
Ringfield was arrested last year in relation to a theft of over $1,000 from a Fry’s grocery store. The county’s background check didn’t flag that arrest because Ringfield entered a diversion program, which had him on felony release.
Richer initially denied that Ringfield was the same individual who filed a statement of interest last year to run in this year’s Senate race as a Democrat.
Yep. Not the same guy. Although surely you wouldn't say being convicted a crime is disqualifying for a candidate, right?
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 25, 2024
Richer later admitted he was wrong, apologizing to GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake’s top advisor, Caroline Wren, as well as radio personality Garret Lewis and lawyer Tom Ryan.
No. I do not. In my haste, I got this one wrong and I apologize for that. Thank you, @CarolineWren , for your patience. And also, my apologies to @GarretLewis, @tomryanlaw, and anyone else lead astray.
The man arrested appears to be the same who filed a statement to run as…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 26, 2024
Maricopa County reported that Ringfield began working in elections on June 3. The county sheriff’s office commended the elections staff for recognizing the missing items in a timely manner.
