Arizona expects to be back at the center of election attacks
PHOENIX >> The room sits behind a chain-link fence, then black iron gates. Guards block the entrance, which requires a security badge to access. The glass surrounding it is shatterproof.
What merits all these layers of protection is somewhat surprising: tabulating machines that count the votes during elections in Arizona's Maricopa County. The security measures are a necessary expense, said the county recorder, Stephen Richer, as Arizona and its largest county have become hotbeds of election misinformation and conspiracy theories that have led to near continuous threats and harassment against election workers.
“What would be even more of a shame is if we couldn't look the workers in the eye and say, `We're doing everything possible to make sure that you're safe,'” he said.
Richer's job is to oversee voter registration and early voting, but ever since he took office in 2021, much of his time has been diverted to preparing for disinformation and its consequences. The state's razor-thin presidential outcome in 2020 made it a national epicenter for misinformation about voter fraud, voting machine problems and phony results.
The false claims, promoted by prominent Republicans such as presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, have driven protesters to rally outside vote-counting centers and to patrol drop boxes. The claims have fueled death threats against election workers and their families and prompted top election officials to quit across Arizona.
The battleground state also has become a target for attacks from election meddlers and other bad actors who repeatedly attempt to hack or disable the state's electronic systems, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said.
The challenges come as election offices nationwide have dealt with mounting concerns, including persistent misinformation and harassment of election workers, artificial intelligence deepfakes used to disenfranchise voters, potential cyberattacks from foreign governments and criminal ransomware attacks against computer systems. Many of these offices are understaffed and underfunded, even as the federal government has raised alarm about foreign election interference attempts this year.
In Arizona, with a looming presidential rematch and high-profile U.S. Senate race, Republican Richer and Democrat Fontes are taking more aggressive steps than ever to rebuild trust with voters, knock down disinformation and immediately address attacks.
In recent interviews and tours of their operations, they said they are hoping their efforts are enough to counter an onslaught they know is coming as the November general election draws closer.
Protecting democracy
Fontes, a Marine Corps veteran, has brought his military mindset to the office since he started last year. He has deployed “tiger teams” to troubleshoot problems and hosted simulations to prepare workers for AI-generated disinformation.
He has created a fourperson information security team that bolsters defenses against cyberattacks and gathers intelligence on election-related threats, which descend on Arizona from near and far.
The team includes a position that's so far been unusual in statewide election offices: a full-time analyst solely devoted to monitoring the internet for disinformation and threats.
Conservatives in other states have balked at their election offices partnering with companies to track online postings, arguing it enables government surveillance and censorship. Arizonans voting before last Tuesday's presidential primary at an early-voting site in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe also weren't convinced.
“You're monitoring it for threats? Sure. You need to ensure safety,” said 40-year-old Thomas Abia. But he said monitoring for falsehoods is a “gray area” that makes him concerned about privacy.
Fontes defends the need for the dedicated staffer, whose name he declined to share to protect that person's safety.
“Yeah, we are surveilling a certain group,” he said. “We're surveilling people that want to destroy our democracy. And that's not political.”
The team's leader, chief information security officer Michael Moore, said the team doesn't compel social media platforms to remove posts and only reports especially egregious posts, as any platform user can.
Run and hide
Moore came to his job after doing similar work for Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
He said that after seeing the hundreds of threats that disrupted the lives of election workers during the 2022 midterm elections, he believes those who spread misinformation are directly responsible.
In one case, the day after Richer spoke at a chaotic public meeting during which county officials certified the November 2022 election results, Richer received two voicemails on his cellphone telling him to “run” and “hide.”
The caller, a California man whose expletive-laden voicemails claimed Richer wanted to “cheat our elections” and “screw Americans out of true votes,” was arrested last month, according to the Justice Department.
“Sophisticated snake oil salesmen are telling people what they want to hear in the election conspiracy vein — and that emboldens people to take action,” Moore said. “If someone you trusted told you that elections were being stolen, democracy being stolen, wouldn't you want to act on that?”
Fontes and Richer hope to steer Arizonans back to disagreeing on the issues, rather than about trust in elections.
“We're not talking about American transportation infrastructure or education infrastructure, all the other things that we really want to see develop,” Fontes said. “That loss of civic faith is the real problem that we have.”
They also agree that rebuilding public confidence will require transparency. They are practicing that already.
Fontes is testing a statewide system for voters to receive text messages when their ballot is mailed, delivered, returned and counted. Such a system exists in the state's two largest counties.
Richer recently hosted his first “Ask Me Anything” live video session on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He frequently engages directly with voters, and his team has hosted more than 30 tours of the tabulation center in the past year, inviting anyone to sign up.
Fontes and Richer say one of the toughest challenges of misinformation is the doubt created among large swaths of voters.