Stephen Richer

This summer, Stephen Richer, the county recorder in Maricopa County, Ariz., ran for re-election as an unabashedly pro-democracy Republican. That was a bold stance in Maricopa, which had been overrun by baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections. Richer spent the past four years defending the integrity of his county’s election administrators and coming up with new ways to encourage citizens to see with their own eyes how their votes are counted. “If there's one thing that I would say has been the centerpiece of my four years, it’s been just increasing the flow of information,” Richer says.

For those efforts, Richer was reviled by fellow Republicans and attracted death threats, including one from a state party official who called for his lynching. At town halls, Richer prompted boos for simply affirming the 2020 election wasn’t stolen. “I just thought that it was the only ethically responsible thing to do,” he says. “And I would do it again.”

In July, Richer lost his Republican primary to a far-right challenger who has cast doubt on the outcomes of recent elections. Richer will step down in January, after overseeing the 2024 elections in a closely watched swing state. Even so, Richer tells TIME he wouldn’t change a thing. “If you poll-tested ‘democracy defender’ in a closed Republican primary right now in Maricopa County, I think that's a loser,” he says. “I personally went through some pretty low times. But it was very meaningful.”

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

TIME: You are in a somewhat unusual niche as a Republican vocally defending the integrity of the electoral process, at a time when that is not the general tenor of your party.

Richer: It's important. If you're a Dem, I'm not gonna say that it's not important or that it doesn't take courage. But the politics of it are just different—it's in your political interest if you're a Democrat Secretary of State to be teeing off against a lot of this. So, you know, in terms of the sacrifice, it's just a completely different dynamic. 

TIME: Given everything that happened in 2020 and all of the efforts in the four years since to bolster faith in the election system, do you feel like voters will have more trust in the process in 2024, or has it just been further corroded? 

Richer: The polling suggests that confidence hasn't materially changed since 2021, and I think that is interesting. What I can say for certain is that there are many more opportunities to access information than there were in 2020, both because of COVID and because the election community has responded and realized that this is of critical importance. Never has there been anywhere close to the amount of resources available if you want to learn about election administration, and some of it will hit you even if you don't want to learn about election administration. 

That being said, I still get questions about Dominion [Voting Systems] every single day, and I don't know how much more information can be put out…And so it's not simply a matter of just, ‘Oh, we need more information.’ I mean that one's about as plain as possible. 

And then the other thing is that in 2020, the other side was shooting from the hip and building this infrastructure as Trump spoke. Now there are organizations and individuals who have this as their reason for being, and they're very well equipped to and prepared to sow doubt in the process. They look for opportunities; they manufacture opportunities. So I would say it's been an escalation of arms on both sides. 

TIME: In your role, what kind of steps have you taken to allow people to see with their own eyes how the electoral process works to combat these conspiracy theories? Tell me more about these transparency efforts. 

Richer: This has been the focus of my four years and office. We have spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars to this end. We’ve done over 300 tours of our elections facilities with members of the community, anyone who wants to see the machinery, the people, the process of election administration in Maricopa County. We've done numerous tele-town halls where you can ask me any question. We've done live video-stream tours of our election facility. We've done videos, we've done articles, we've done reports. I've done countless interviews on TV, on radio. We've spent millions of dollars on an advertising budget explaining how the process works. We've expanded things like the number of ballot-tracking features, the ability to go online to your individual voter dashboard and see all of your own individual voter statistics.

Just two weeks ago, we put out a visual representation of the tabulation process with Coke cans, and a feature where you can click through our election facility and click on all the different tags of all the different machinery, just like you do if you’re deciding whether you want to buy a home. You can go to our website [and] you can click through our entire elections facility. And every single piece of equipment has a little tag where you can click on it to learn more. So just, I don't know any election jurisdiction in the country that's doing more—increasing the number of live 24/7 video cameras—so that you can watch the process, increasing the number of partisan observation opportunities, increasing the number of temporary partisan workers that we have in the process—just so anyone who wants to get involved can get involved.

So I laughed when somebody recently said, ‘You know, you're not transparent.” Okay, well the elections community feels otherwise. And it wasn't by design, but if there's one thing that I would say has been the centerpiece of my four years, it's been just increasing the flow of information.

TIME: So you’re saying that people were demanding transparency, and you gave them transparency. What does it mean that you still lost? 

Richer: Well, elections are always an amalgamation of many things. But I think it clearly means that, one, I didn’t convince everyone that this was a process worth believing in. Two, there are a number of people who, even if they don't have strong feelings about the election systems, don't like that. You're seen to be sort of siding with the opposition and pushing back against our people, so to speak. Why are you butting heads with our people? Why are you butting heads with Kari Lake? Why are you butting heads with Donald Trump, and so that was sort of like an antagonism that I don't know that I could have avoided, but it was to the disliking of many within the Republican primary. 

And then lastly, I would say that it's a tribal tattoo for many people. And if you don't believe the 2020 election was stolen, never mind the facts and stuff like that, then you're not part of our gang. There's an industry that now exists, and for that industry I was maybe public enemy number one. Developing a national profile, becoming well-known for providing information well, all those things are neat for the elections community and neat for certain circles but they're probably detrimental in a closed Republican primary in Arizona.

If you poll tested “democracy defender” in a closed Republican primary right now in Maricopa County, I think that's a loser. 

TIME: Do you regret putting yourself out there like that and running for reelection, knowing how entrenched a lot of these attitudes are among Republicans there?

Richer: I was at an event with about 400 Republicans, and the last question that they asked me, which was supposedly a randomly drawn question, was whether the 2020 election was stolen. I simply said no, the 2020 election wasn't stolen; that's a documented fact. And I would get booed at these events. But I just thought that it was the only ethically responsible thing to do. And I would do it again. 

I mean, I can't even begin to tell you how almost subhuman the treatment has been. Because if you're a Dem pushing back against this stuff, then the partisan sides are drawn, and you have your Dem friends supporting you. There weren't many people, and there were a lot of friends, supposed friends, who were quiet during this. And I mean, just the things that were said and done to me over the last four years, by even by some people who are supposed to be friends, was worse than I would treat a cockroach. I personally went through some pretty low times. But it was very meaningful. 

I structured my life around something that I thought was very meaningful, and this was that in spades. So, yeah, I'm very lucky in that sense. You know, not everyone gets a chance to work on something as globally significant.