While most county recorders prepare for the 2024 election, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer can’t escape the 2022 election.
Kari Lake won’t let him.
Lake was convinced she was going to be Arizona’s next governor and when that didn’t happen, she told her supporters, “Our movement was so powerful that they had to sabotage election day operations, they had to steal our vote in broad daylight.”
According to Richer, who like Lake is a Republican, Lake’s reference to “they” are the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and him.
After months of allegations, insults and threats about his involvement in a stolen election, Richer is fighting back.
“These are serious things she’s accused me of and they’re specific and they’ve been deemed false by the courts,” Richer said. “She continues to say them. And they have caused me significant damage. So that’s check, check, check on all the elements of a defamation lawsuit.”
Lake blamed ballot printer issues on the Recorder and she accused him of inserting more than 300,000 invalid ballots into the Maricopa County vote count. All in an effort to steal the election from her.
The courts ruled those charges were unfounded. But the county Recorder says it hasn’t stopped the threats against him. “I received tens of thousands of messages to the effect of ‘you’re a traitor’, ‘you should hang’. Whenever Ms. Lake posts, it usually triggers quite a few of those direct messages.”
In his defamation lawsuit against Lake, Richer claims he and his family have been targets of threats of violence, even death. Their lives were turned upside down.
It didn’t stop Richer from using social media to poke the bear. In one tweet, Richer jokes about how Lake will characterize her defeat in court. Corrupt judge, stupid judge, deep state or mature concession.
But Richer insists what is happening to him is no laughing matter. And Lake’s refusal to move on from 2022 means he can’t either.
“These are serious accusations she is making against me. She knows they are false. so we can’t say hey these are false please stop. so now we’re trying a different method,” he said.
The 2024 election season is already upon us. The Republican Presidential Primary is less than a year away.
