Lou Bricano
2024-06-26 22:49:05 UTC
PHOENIX (AP) Arizona authorities on Tuesday said they were investigating
whether a 27-year-old temporary election worker in the states largest
county had political motivations when he stole a fob that would allow him
access to vote tabulators just before the July 30 primary.
This is not your average theft, Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner
said at a news conference in Phoenix, adding that he had no information
yet on the suspects beliefs.
Skinner said authorities were reviewing Walter Ringfields social media
feeds and phone to determine whether he was working with anyone when he
took the small black fob that allows access to the tabulators used in the
county, which has been the subject of election conspiracy theories ever
since President Joe Biden narrowly beat former President Donald Trump in
the state four years ago.
Trump falsely claimed there was massive fraud in Maricopa, leading to
Republican lawmakers launching an error-riddled review of the ballot count
and a long string of threats against the local GOP officials who stood by
their staffs tallies. As the county geared up for the primary in which
the Republican county recorder and a Republican county supervisors are
being challenged by election conspiracy theorists it hired more than
2,000 temporary workers to help with the election.
Ringfield was one of them. On Thursday, according to a statement from the
sheriffs office, surveillance footage showed Ringfield taking one of the
fobs from a desk shortly after 5 p.m. He was arrested at his Phoenix home
the next day after election workers realized that one of the fobs was
missing, authorities said.
Ringfield told the sheriffs department he took the fob because he was
trying to help clean up. He also said he had hoped to get a permanent
position in the elections office, according to the agencys statement. The
public defenders office said a lawyer had not yet been assigned to
represent Ringfield.
Skinner and Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said election officials
reprogrammed the tabulators to make sure they could not be accessed by the
fob and then conducted a new test of the counting equipment to make sure
it worked, with observers from both major parties. A Republican, Gates
stressed that the incident shows the security of the countys operation.
The suspect was arrested the day we determined it was missing, Gates
said. This incident has shown all of the protocols that are in place. We
have cameras. We have observers.
Alluding to the years of turmoil around elections in the county, Gates
added: I certainly hope people dont take this incident to spin up
further conspiracy theories.
The Republican National Committee in a statement said it dispatched staff
to Maricopa in response to the incident. The partys election integrity
operation is led by Christina Bobb, an attorney and former reporter for a
conservative news network who promoted the conspiratorial review of the
2020 election in the county.
This incident raises serious questions about election security in Arizona
that must be answered - we will be constructively engaged with Maricopa
County officials to ensure that the remedies to this security breach
sufficiently address our concerns, RNC chairman Michael Whatley said in a
statement.
https://apnews.com/article/arizona-2024-election-maricopa-county-worker-
tabulators-9b62eaa92623d33f40cc0cffbfeca9d4
whether a 27-year-old temporary election worker in the states largest
county had political motivations when he stole a fob that would allow him
access to vote tabulators just before the July 30 primary.
This is not your average theft, Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner
said at a news conference in Phoenix, adding that he had no information
yet on the suspects beliefs.
Skinner said authorities were reviewing Walter Ringfields social media
feeds and phone to determine whether he was working with anyone when he
took the small black fob that allows access to the tabulators used in the
county, which has been the subject of election conspiracy theories ever
since President Joe Biden narrowly beat former President Donald Trump in
the state four years ago.
Trump falsely claimed there was massive fraud in Maricopa, leading to
Republican lawmakers launching an error-riddled review of the ballot count
and a long string of threats against the local GOP officials who stood by
their staffs tallies. As the county geared up for the primary in which
the Republican county recorder and a Republican county supervisors are
being challenged by election conspiracy theorists it hired more than
2,000 temporary workers to help with the election.
Ringfield was one of them. On Thursday, according to a statement from the
sheriffs office, surveillance footage showed Ringfield taking one of the
fobs from a desk shortly after 5 p.m. He was arrested at his Phoenix home
the next day after election workers realized that one of the fobs was
missing, authorities said.
Ringfield told the sheriffs department he took the fob because he was
trying to help clean up. He also said he had hoped to get a permanent
position in the elections office, according to the agencys statement. The
public defenders office said a lawyer had not yet been assigned to
represent Ringfield.
Skinner and Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said election officials
reprogrammed the tabulators to make sure they could not be accessed by the
fob and then conducted a new test of the counting equipment to make sure
it worked, with observers from both major parties. A Republican, Gates
stressed that the incident shows the security of the countys operation.
The suspect was arrested the day we determined it was missing, Gates
said. This incident has shown all of the protocols that are in place. We
have cameras. We have observers.
Alluding to the years of turmoil around elections in the county, Gates
added: I certainly hope people dont take this incident to spin up
further conspiracy theories.
The Republican National Committee in a statement said it dispatched staff
to Maricopa in response to the incident. The partys election integrity
operation is led by Christina Bobb, an attorney and former reporter for a
conservative news network who promoted the conspiratorial review of the
2020 election in the county.
This incident raises serious questions about election security in Arizona
that must be answered - we will be constructively engaged with Maricopa
County officials to ensure that the remedies to this security breach
sufficiently address our concerns, RNC chairman Michael Whatley said in a
statement.
https://apnews.com/article/arizona-2024-election-maricopa-county-worker-
tabulators-9b62eaa92623d33f40cc0cffbfeca9d4