Arizona
Arizona election official swamped by conspiracy theorists leaving post
A Republican supervisor of Maricopa County, Arizona, is declining to seek reelection in the 2024 cycle after an onslaught of harassment surrounding certification of the 2020 election.
Bill Gates, a long-term conservative and Harvard-educated lawyer, faced threats from election deniers. He told media outlets the situation led to a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.
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“At Maricopa County, I kept government lean, taxes low, supported our most vulnerable residents, and told the truth about our elections in the face of false information,” Gates said in a Thursday statement.
Gates said that his “will to fight for the truth remains unhindered.”
In the years since former President Donald Trump lost Arizona in the election, Gates has faced death threats and harassment from far-right Trump supporters.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
“This has been a family journey,” Gates told the Washington Post in May. “We’re all working through this together. But we had to understand that we couldn’t do this on our own. We had to reach out for help.”
Defeated gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was at the center of casting election doubt in her own 2022 race, alleging hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast in Maricopa County.
“He has done irreparable damage to election Integrity & the people of Arizona,” Lake’s campaign tweeted in response to Gates’s statement announcing he would step down at the end of the term. “We encourage Mr. Gates to never involve himself in representative politics again.”
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Lake called for county election officials to be “locked up” at Turning Point USA’s America Fest last year. Lake’s final election lawsuit was denied last month, confirming Democrat Katie Hobbs won the 2022 election.
“As this chapter comes to an end, I rest well knowing that I led with integrity, compassion, and dignity,” Gates said. “Regardless of personal partisan preferences or external pressure, I remained focused on making our region the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”