By Carrie Watters and Jen Fifield | Arizona Republic
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s tweet Saturday castigated former President Donald Trump for alleging “election crime” in an email he sent Saturday.
Trump’s premature leap to unsubstantiated conclusionsdrew Richer’s attention before a scheduled meeting Monday in which Maricopa County officials say they will respond to questions raised by Arizona Senate-hired private contractors auditing the county’s general election.
Richer took office in January, after the election, the election count and county accuracy tests and a county-directed audit were conducted.
He and other Republican county officials are sounding alarms as claims about a deleted database such as the one made by Trump — and the audit’s own Twitter account — burn across social media like wildfire.
“Wow. This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now,” Richer posted on Twitter in response to Trump’s claims.
He added: “We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country.”
Trump wrote in one of his Saturday emails, “The entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED!” He called it “illegal” and an “election crime,” despite the audit spokesperson walking back such claims two days earlier. Trump also alleged that “seals were broken on the boxes that hold the votes, ballots are missing, and worse.”
