Bill Gates, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, confirmed that security concerns forced him and his family to temporarily hole up in an undisclosed location — although he made clear it was only for one night.
By Sasha Hupka || Arizona Republic
Maricopa County officials were facing battles on multiple fronts at the top of the week as they wrapped up counting ballots.
Election officials dropped a final round of unofficial election results Monday afternoon coming off a busy weekend that saw a letter from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office requesting a formal response from the county on its Election Day printer woes.
That issue was punctuated by a leaked call between Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake’s campaign and one of Maricopa County’s top lawyers. A video released on social media by Lake’s campaign captured a portion of a phone conversation that showcased tensions between her staff and attorney Thomas Liddy, head of the county’s civil litigation office.
Other conservative figures piled onto the county. A statement from the Arizona Freedom Caucus, a multistate Republican group that lists election integrity as one of its key issues, called county officials “incompetent, alleged criminals” and said they should “resign in shame.”
“After taking an absurd and unnecessary amount of time to count ballots, we are now finding out that Maricopa County election officials may not merely be incompetent but may also be criminals,” said state Rep. Jake Hoffman, the chairman of the caucus, in a statement.
“These allegations could quite reasonably lead someone to believe that this incompetence, which has prevented us from knowing the outcomes of our elections for nearly two weeks, is simply a tool for corrupt politicians to rig elections in their favor.”
