Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (left) Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates (right) – By Matthew Casey/KJZZ
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer published twelve proposed election reform laws last week with suggestions for Arizona Legislators “to make meaningful improvements” to Arizona’s elections.
During the 2022 Election, Richer founded and operated the Pro-Democracy Republicans PAC, a dark money PAC aimed at eliminating candidates with a MAGA agenda, used his office to illegally campaign against a ballot initiative requiring voter ID, and colluded with the federal government to censor conservative voices like The Gateway Pundit and likely Kari Lake.
Later on election day, nearly 60% of machines and printers failed in-person voters who turned out 3:1 on election day. Many did not vote, or they were forced to wait hours to vote and drop their ballots in a mysterious box to be tabulated later off-site. With the chain of custody failures that occurred, there is no way of knowing if every legal vote was counted.
Richer’s new election plan seeks to end election day ballot drop-offs and expand the early voting season from 27 days to 32 days or further open the chain of custody by allowing multiple dropbox pickups on election day.
Early voting in Arizona is already 27 days long, and Richer even admits ending day-of voting would disenfranchise Republican voters, who disproportionately turn out on election day to vote in person or drop off their mail-in ballot. Additionally, it was revealed by a Runbeck Election Services whistleblower that in the 2022 Midterm Election, over 300,000 ballots were delivered to Runbeck for signature verification on Election Day with no chain of custody documentation. Maricopa County also failed to account for ballots and to maintain legally required security and chain of custody for ballots, and 25,000 ballots were mysteriously added to the totals AFTER election day.
Stephen Richer even admitted to not keeping a chain of custody for likely hundreds of thousands of ballots leaving the vote centers.
Allowing multiple dropbox pickups on election day would further undermine confidence and allow more likelihood for fraudulent or illegal ballots under the current circumstances.
Additionally, Richer hopes to make the Recorder’s office a nonpartisan position and allow Independents to vote in Presidential Primary Elections.
This is likely opening the door to Open Primaries and ranked-choice voting in Arizona. Stephen Richer is a member of Save Democracy AZ, a group that “intends to educate voters of the challenges facing the state of Arizona brought about by our partisan primary system and explore alternative nonpartisan voting systems that would make elections work better for all citizens.”
Questionably elected Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is also a member of Save Democracy AZ.
The Gateway Pundit recently reported that Kari Lake’s appeal in her lawsuit to overturn the 2022 Midterm election was scheduled for conference on February 1.
Lake recently told Steve Bannon, “We know they stole the election, and we have more evidence coming forth.”
Kari Lake fired off a response to Richer’s proposals, calling on him to resign immediately instead.
Lake: Getting tips from Stephen Richer about elections integrity is like getting fire safety tips from an arsonist.
The only thing he should do to reform our elections is resign immediately and apologize to every man, woman & child in Arizona for his malicious incompetence & perjury.
Some of the suggestions made by Richer are not bad, such as a longer period between the Primary and General Elections and maintenance of the State’s voter registration database. However, voters in Arizona have been asking these questions for years.
Additionally, Maricopa County and Pima Counties have refused to participate in the AVID voter registration database and to help provide funding for updating the database.
Read Richer’s full 28-page proposal below:
Arizona Election Law Reform Proposals_Stephen Richer by Jordan Conradson on Scribd
We The People AZ Alliance Chairman and Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) First Vice-Chair Shelby Busch released a statement on Richer’s “disastrous election ‘plan,’” highlighting the issues and concerns held by voters and the MCRC.
“Please tell him No!!!”, they tweeted.
Busch encourages voters to peacefully contact Stephen Richer and demand “secure elections, not convenient elections.” Richer’s contact information can be found here.
Recorder’s Office Phone Number: 602-506-3535
Recorder and Elections Dept. Phone Number: 602-506-1511
The Gateway Pundit will continue to provide updates on Maricopa County’s sham election and lawsuits challenging the results.