Arizona election official colluded with government censors on elections, leaked documents reveal

Arizona’s Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer worked with federal censorship officials to censor "election misinformation” according to leaked confidential documents released by attorney Christina Robb Wednesday. 

The officials belonged to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. CISA is responsible for working with social media platforms to ban speech offensive to the federal government as reported last month by Frontline News. Among the social media executives CISA had met with monthly was Twitter Head of Legal Policy, Trust, and Safety Vijaya Gadde, who was recently terminated by Elon Musk. Gadde, who made the call to ban President Trump from Twitter and censor the Hunter Biden laptop story, was a member of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee. 

A summary of a meeting between that committee and Stephen Richer, marked “For Official Use Only,” reveals the election official begged the federal government to censor “false information” concerning elections. 

According to the summary, Richer said “the federal government cannot stay silent and identified a void in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election that allowed false information to circulate unchecked.” Richer then “encouraged CISA to flood the zone with factual information.” 

The Arizona election official also identified "opportunities” for CISA to help fight election misinformation in Arizona. These included “partnership with social media,” funding and resources, “educate the public and determine how people are manipulating the public’s understanding of the truth,” and “pre-bunking,” which pre-emptively warns people about certain misinformation. 

Richer shared with the committee his efforts in “calling out” misinformation posts online. 

At one point, Richer praised the mainstream media and social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook as credible: 

Mr. Richer . . . upheld the credibility of main media institutions, social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook, and encouraged the business community to mobilize and share information from CISA.

Another recommendation Richer made to the government was that it “hold bootcamps” for mainstream media such as Fox News and CNN to coach them on “how elections are administered” and to also work with members of Congress “to reach the information leaders.” 

Later in the meeting, Gadde complained that, while she bans unapproved information on Twitter, she has no government information with which to replace it. She asked Richer to provide her with the information he would like Twitter to disseminate. 

Richer asked if it’s better to censor information quickly “with 95% confidence” or wait a few days “to act with 99% confidence.” Gadde answered that most tweet impressions happen within the first 24 hours so it’s better to ban the information immediately and ask questions later. 

Stephen Richer has come under fire recently from Maricopa County residents after running a questionable midterm gubernatorial election fraught with irregularities.  

The declared winner of the election Democrat Katie Hobbs was also Arizona’s Secretary of State during the election, which means she presided over her own race and certified her own victory. Republican Kari Lake, who maintained a lead over Hobbs for a week after Election Day, lost at the last moment to Hobbs after a week of vote counting. 

Stephen Richer and Supervisor Chairman Bill Gates, who told voters to expect delays in counting votes, created a political action committee one year ago called the Pro Democracy Republicans of Arizona dedicated to keeping Trump-supporting Republican candidates out of office. For election officials to meddle in elections to such an extent is considered a “rarity” even for the Left.     

Furthermore, half the county’s tabulation machines or printers in Arizona’s Maricopa County voting centers malfunctioned, predominantly in Republican areas. Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake reported she was forced to vote in a liberal area so she would be assured of a functioning tabulation machine.   

Many have also questioned why Arizonans would vote for a Democratic governor, who won by a narrow margin, and vote for a Republican state treasurer, who beat her opponent by 11 points.