On Tuesday, in the middle of Election Day, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer threw the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors under the bus for the myriad of problems with election day voting. His message, from his campaign email account, came complete with a “Contribute” button at the bottom.
With one in five voting centers experiencing problems with printers and tabulators, causing county-wide chaos, Richer took the time away from his work to send out the email to supporters, pointing his finger at the Board:
November 8, 2022
I am very sorry for any voter who has been frustrated or inconvenienced today in Maricopa County.
Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.
State statute has long governed the division of labor in Arizona election administration. Broadly speaking, the County Recorder is responsible for voter registration and early voting. The Board of Supervisors is responsible for Emergency Voting, Election Day operations, and tabulation.
Since becoming Recorder in 2021, I have worked hard to improve voter registration and Early Voting, while also supporting the Board’s administration of Election Day operations and tabulation, as well as bolstering communications about elections holistically.
I will continue to do that today, and through the conclusion of this election. And I will continue to assist voters in any way I can.
The Board of Supervisors has now identified the problem and has begun fixing affected voting locations.
The Board of Supervisor is also advising all affected voters to do one of the following:
- Place the ballot in “drawer 3.” This secure ballot box is retrieved by bipartisan workers at the end of the evening and brought to our central tabulators. This is the same methodology used for early voting, and it is the same methodology used on Election Day by most counties (including Pima County and Yavapai County)
- Go to a different voting location. There are 223 voting locations, and the significant majority of them are unaffected. If you have already checked in, but want to cast your ballot at another site, you must first check out with a poll worker at the SiteBook to return the issued ballot. Then you will be able to vote at any of our locations. All locations can be found at Maricopa.Vote.
As has always been the case, every valid vote will be counted.
And has always been the case, I remain committed to helping in any way I can.
Stephen Richer
Maricopa County RecorderP.S. We have received and verified over 900,000 early ballots, and those will be ready for release at 8:00 PM tonight when results first become available.
Richer has attacked many of his own supporters when they expressed concerns about the unprofessional handling of the 2020 Primary and General elections, despite the fact that Richer’s own 2020 campaign focused on those same complaints.
In fact, Richer was hired by the Republican Party to issue a report following complaints about former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes’ handling of the 2018 election cycle. Fontes is now the Democrat’s candidate for Secretary of State.
In a January 2019 preliminary report to then Party Chair Jonathan Lines, Richer noted several areas of concern with Fontes’ conduct in 2018, including Fontes’ decision to open emergency voting centers located in Democratic-controlled precincts, his decision to rehabilitate ballots after Election Day, and allegations of partisan behavior by Fontes.
Since that time, Richer has changed his tune to fit one that serves the “establishment Liz Cheney/John McCain wing” of the Republican Party, say his former supporters, who received the email.
“You know things are going badly at Maricopa County when Stephen Richer is throwing the County Supervisors under the bus. They all owe the voters an apology and none of them should be looking to avoid responsibility for this mess. They have spent the last two years pretending 2020 was a perfectly run election in spite of the evidence, and they need to own their mistakes in 2022 instead of lying to the voters again,” Thayer Verschoor told the Arizona Daily Independent. Verschoor is a former State Senator and Executive Director of the AZGOP, and was also a candidate for County Supervisor earlier this year.
“I can’t imagine a worse time for a County Recorder to be soliciting contributions than on Election Day, while your voters are stuck in line, waiting for your malfunctioning machines to be repaired so they can vote,” said GOP campaign consultant Constantin Querard.
Richer’s Support Of Fontes Ignores Past Criticisms And Could Hurt Republican Candidates