A dozen Republican women filed past wrought-iron fences and barbed wire to tour a sun-drenched building in Maricopa County, Arizona — not a prison, but an election site.
Outside the room where workers will count votes for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, election official Stephen Richer greeted members of the Ahwatukee Republican Women, a grassroots political organization in the southwestern battleground state, as they signed in and settled into metal folding chairs.
“We know that a lot of pressure is going to be on Arizona because we might just decide the fate of the free universe come November,” Richer, the county recorder, said as the air conditioning whirred.
“And so I know that there’s going to be a lot of questions.”
Much of Maricopa County’s preparation for November has been focused on increasing physical security in the face of high tension and disinformation around previous elections. But officials here are also trying to win voters’ hearts and minds.
Richer’s office has given more than 100 public tours of the county’s ballot tabulation facility since he was elected in 2020, just before an onslaught of disinformation questioning President Joe Biden’s win culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Arizona, which Trump lost to Biden by some 10,000 votes, was a flashpoint for conspiracy theories about lost votes and illegal ballot harvesting — many of which AFP debunked.
One woman taking the tour asked Richer, a fellow Republican, about a neighbor who received two ballots for someone who hadn’t lived there in years. Another brought up allegations of dead people voting.
“It shouldn’t happen,” Richer said, before explaining how the county works with federal and state agencies to keep voter rolls up to date and refers potential criminal cases to the attorney general.
Another attendee chimed in: “It shouldn’t happen, but it does.”
Security enhancements
After Fox News made the call on Election Night 2020 that Biden had won Arizona, InfoWars founder Alex Jones and a crowd of armed protesters showed up outside Maricopa County’s election center, chanting “Arrest Joe Biden” and “Count the legal votes.”
The county started to bulk up security ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, in which Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake refused to concede to rival Katie Hobbs — despite the fact that several audits confirmed the Democrat’s victory.
Officials have updated cameras, increased armed guards and replaced doors to secure areas, according to a list of enhancements obtained by AFP.
In coordination with the county sheriff, the election center has increased security on the roof and implemented “continuous building patrols including officers on horseback.”
In a secure area, Richer showed the Ahwatukee Republican Women each step of the vote-counting process — from the cavernous warehouse where ballots arrive on rented trucks to the room where they are tabulated.
“Every single year we will have thousands and thousands and thousands of ballot packets that we are not able to signature-verify,” Richer said in an area with large posters showing how officials examine mail-in votes.
“And those, if not cured, are never able to move forward.”
In the fluorescent “Big Room” where votes are processed, he explained how election workers strip ballots of identifying information to safeguard privacy, and store them in locked floor-to-ceiling cages to prevent tampering.
Richer himself cannot even access those areas or the ballot tabulation room, which featured prominently in conspiratorial videos about the 2020 and 2022 polls.
The space is not connected to the internet, and authorized officials must check all their belongings before entering in groups or two or more.
One woman later asked about “unmonitored” drop boxes, which some had claimed were used to lodge illegal ballots in the past.
Richer replied that the county only had two drop boxes — and both are under video surveillance.
“You can watch them on our website,” he said.
‘Magnify problems’
County officials hope opening up the election center to voters before November 5 will help assuage concerns about fraud.
“The first thing someone hears about elections is the one that they’ll remember,” said Taylor Kinnerup, communications director for Richer’s office.
Before the tour, several participants filled out a survey indicating they had little confidence in Maricopa’s election apparatus, according to data obtained by AFP. Afterwards, all but one said they were “somewhat confident.”
Karen Deadrick, a 69-year-old special education teacher from Chandler, Arizona, told AFP the experience made her feel better about the process.
“I know there’s a lot of people that will hear one little thing and then they blow it up, magnify it,” she said. “The problem really is because people just like to magnify problems through the internet.”