Top Electoral Officers in Arizona District Departure Amid Threats, #Top #election #Offices #Arizona #county #leave #threats Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
The elected land recorder and election director in Yavapai County, Arizona, have resigned after more than a year and a half of threats and fierce criticism from supporters of former President Donald Trump who accept his lie that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud.
County Recorder Leslie Hoffman said Friday that she is fed up with the “nastiens” and has accepted a job outside the country. Her last day will be July 25th. She said Lynn Constabile, longtime election director, is leaving for the same reason, and Friday is her last day.
“A lot of it is the nareness we were dealing with,” Hoffman said. “I’m a Republican recorder who lives in a Republican county where the candidate they wanted to win won 2-on-1 in this district and still gets sad, and so do my staff.”
“I’m not sure what they think we did wrong,” she said. “And they are very filthy. The accusations and threats are nasty. “
Constabile was conducting a required pre-election “logic and accuracy test” for the upcoming primary election on Friday and is not available for comment.
Hoffman and Constabile’s experiences are not unique, as election staff across the country have been threatened and harassed since Trump’s loss. A former Georgia election worker testified to a congressional committee last week about how her life was turned upside down when Trump and his allies falsely accused her and her mother of pulling fraudulent ballots out of a suitcase in Georgia.
Ken Matta, who has worked for the Arizona State Secretary’s office for nearly 20 years, resigned on May 6 from his job as head of election security. He said in a long Twitter thread that he decided to leave largely because he was tired of the threats and harassment to which he and other election workers were subjected.
Arizona’s 15 land surveyors are responsible for voter registration and for ensuring that postal ballots are properly sent to the more than 80% of voters who vote by mail. They earn just $ 63,800 a year, a salary set by the Legislature that has not risen in the decade Hoffman was in office.
County election directors are appointed and hold the actual elections and oversee the counting of ballots. Constabile has been the election director for 18 years, and is also leaving for another post.
Hoffman said the district sheriff’s office has decided she needs additional protection after the 2020 election due to threats and has started regular patrols of her home, something that was previously unheard of.
Meetings of the Board of Supervisors are packed with critics holding signs and hissing from behind when Hoffman or Constabile are going to make a presentation.
“Every time we have something on the agenda, people come in and protest it,” Hoffman said. “They do not like the providers we use, they do not like the programs they want to set up. It’s very sad. “
Hoffman, a longtime resident of Yavapai County, said she once “sniffed” at her from behind in the room.
“And I looked at them and said, ‘You know what, I’re been in this country since 1961 – there’s no one in this country who cares about it more than I do,'” she said. “And it was met with ‘Shut up, turn around, look at the sign; you are condescending. ‘”
She said she was confident that her “wonderful staff” would ensure that this year’s elections were well run and that provincial supervisors would appoint qualified replacements.
“They are going to be very eager to research anyone they would consider hiring,” she said.
Early ballots for the primary August 2 will be posted next week.
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