GOP election chief calls Trump claims ‘unhinged’

Arizona official urges fellow Republicans to reject ‘these insane lies’ about 2020 vote.

PHOENIX — The Republican who now leads the Arizona county elections department targeted by a GOP “audit” of the 2020 election results is slamming former President Trump and others in his party for their continued falsehoods about how the election was run.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Saturday called a Trump statement accusing the county of deleting an elections database “unhinged” and urged other Republicans to stop the unfounded accusations.

“We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country,” Richer tweeted.

Richer became recorder in January, after defeating the Democratic incumbent.

Trump’s statement came as Republican state Senate President Karen Fann has demanded the GOP-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors come to the Senate to answer questions raised by the private auditors she has hired. The Senate took possession of 2.1 million ballots and election equipment last month for what was supposed to be a three-week hand recount of the presidential race won by Joe Biden.

Instead, the workers have moved at a snail’s pace and had to shut down Thursday after counting about 500,000 ballots. They plan to resume counting in a week, after high school graduation ceremonies planned for the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, which they rented for the ballot examination.

Trump’s statement said, in part, that “the entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED! This is illegal and the Arizona State Senate, who is leading the Forensic Audit, is up in arms.”

Richer and the board say that statement is just plain wrong. In recent days, he and the board have begun calling out the continued falsehoods from Republicans who question Trump’s election loss.

“Enough with the defamation. Enough with the unfounded allegations,” Richer tweeted Thursday. “I came to this office to competently, fairly, and lawfully administer the duties of the office. Not to be accused by own party of shredding ballots and deleting files for an election I didn’t run. Enough.”

The board, led by Republican Chairman Jack Sellers, has gone on Twitter in recent days, firing off a series of messages slamming the private company doing the ballot examination. The board plans to hold a public hearing Monday.

“I know you all have grown weary of lies and halftruths six months after 2020 General Elections,” Sellers said Friday in announcing Monday’s meeting.

Fann repeated the Senate’s demand for access to administrative passwords for vote-counting machines and internet routers. County officials say they have turned over all the passwords they have and have refused to give up the routers, saying it would compromise classified law enforcement information and other sensitive data.