At its annual convention this month, the Maricopa County Republican Party decided to condemn Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and four GOP members of the county’s Board of Supervisors for their handling of the 2022 general election and refusal to assist with the county’s 2020 election audit.

The Arizona Sun Times reported that Chairman Bill Gates, Thomas Galvin, Clint Hickman, and Jack Sellers were the four reprimanded supervisors.

With 1,460 in favor, 138 opposed, and 36 abstentions, the resolution to censure was adopted.

The resolution “ceases immediately any and all recognition and support of the above individuals being censured and encourages all registered Republicans to expel them permanently from office.”

Kathy Petsas, the lone precinct captain to dispute the censure, was met with “the loudest boos of the day,” according to a tweet by Jeremiah Cota.

“Censuring has no purpose in this body,” Petsas said. “It does not build our party. It does not gain us more people.”

Biggest boos of the day at @MaricopaGOP comes when one lone PC comes to defense of Stephen Richer and the Maricopa Board of Supervisors. pic.twitter.com/1HrpC35ZN3

— Jeremiah Cota (@jeremiahcota) January 15, 2023

On the morning of Election Day, with Richer by his side, Gates reported that “around 20 percent” of 223 polling places had tabulator difficulties.

The county later claimed that approximately one-third of the voting locations, or 70 in all, were affected.

Here is a message from Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer with an update for @maricopacounty voters on Elections Day. pic.twitter.com/OkQczCklGb

— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 8, 2022

Nonetheless, Republican National Committee attorney Mark Sonnenklar stated at Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s election challenge hearing last month that his team of roving lawyers on Election Day discovered these issues at 132 places, or 59% of the total.

🚨 Bombshell Testimony from Election Day Attorney 🚨

"There's no question in my mind that had there not been tabulator issues at 132 vote centers, This election would have ended up with @KariLake winning."

Help FUEL our Legal Team:https://t.co/n3390q4MVM pic.twitter.com/Sxa059aM52

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 21, 2022

It was later determined that the incorrect configuration of the ballot printers at the polling stations was the cause of the tabulators’ inability to read the ballots. At the prosecution of Lake, a cybersecurity expert testified that the incident could not have occurred by mistake.

In numerous polling sites, the misprinted ballots contributed to the lengthy wait times.

During her testimony on Tuesday before the Arizona Senate Committee on Elections, Shelby Busch of the We the People AZ Alliance stated that, according to log files received by her organization, there were roughly 250,000 ballot-reading irregularities on Election Day.

Shelby Busch just told the AZ Senate Election Committee that of 464,926 ballots fed into tabulators on Election Day in Maricopa County, 217,305 failed, which is nearly a 50% failure rate. How can you not order a new election?????

— Rachel Alexander (@Rach_IC) January 23, 2023

Lake has contended that because Republicans outvoted Democrats three to one on Election Day, widespread voter suppression of her supporters occurred.

In addition, Lake’s legal team asserted that the total number of ballots reported by the county in the election rose by roughly 25,000 between November 9 and November 11. Significant because it surpasses Katie Hobbs’ roughly 17,000-vote lead over Lake.

Former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett told The Western Journal that Maricopa County should have known the total number of ballots on Election Day or, at the very least, by the next day. He explained that each voting station should have provided the actual number of voters and early ballots.

How many ballots are our responsibility as a county? Bennett stated.

“It should match up with the number of people who signed in on the voting list or envelopes of the people that mailed theirs in or … dropped them off at voting centers on Election Day.”

Lake’s civil complaint against the county contains testimonies from three Maricopa County employees who allege that 90 percent of votes flagged for signature discrepancies did not through the curing procedure to authenticate the voters’ identities.

More on this story via The Western Journal:

In October 2021, Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, whose district is in Maricopa County, pressed county officials at a congressional hearing about their failure to fully cooperate with the audit of the 2020 election.CONTIUE READING…