On Thursday, County Recorder Stephen Richer sat down with 12News and said that the county is "well prepared" for the general election.
"We always have concerns because it is a lot of human beings doing a lot of things. There are two million voters in Maricopa County alone," Richer said. "But I think we're very well prepared."
Maricopa County saw successful primary and presidential preference elections, Richer said. So far for the 2024 general election, 1.9 million mail-in ballot packets have already gone out in the county and over 2,000 people showed up to vote on the first day of early voting.
"We're off to the races feeling good, but we know that it's a long run," Richer said.
Part of that long run happened weeks before early voting began.
A few weeks before ballots were mailed to overseas voters, a computer error was discovered by Richer's staff.
There were approximately 98,000 voters left in limbo after the Maricopa County Recorder's Office discovered that Arizona's main database for tracking information on registered voters had incorrectly updated their citizenship status over the last 20 years.
On Sep. 20, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that affected voters should be allowed to cast a full election ballot, despite not having complied with an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship to vote.
Richer said he and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes thought it was so important to get the issue in the front of Arizona Supreme Court before the election so there would be "crystal clear instructions" on how to handle any issues after the election.
Richer weighs in on Lake, Gallego debate
Going into the general election, Richer said he has not backed anyone in the Arizona Senate race between Republican candidate Kari Lake and Democratic candidate Ruben Gallego. Richer does have a defamation lawsuit against Lake pending before the Arizona Supreme Court.
Richer said he watched the debate between Gallego and Lake on Wednesday evening and was not planning to say anything until Lake began speaking about the 2022 election.
"I wasn't really weighing in until Ms. Lake continued to make false statements about the election," Richer said. "My interest in the debate was specific to that, and it's just frustrating to me that this is somebody who is either lying to the courts or lying to the Arizona public."
Richer said he would "stick his neck out" when people make false claims about the election system or himself.
"I'm tired of bullies, I'm tired of people who won't look facts in the face and I'm tired of people who disrespect our judicial system and [Lake's] doing all that," Richer said.
After four years of mistrust in elections, Richer said he is hopeful that after this election, voters will be able to talk about other issues, particularly those that are important to Arizonans.
But in his interview on 60 Minutes, Richer admitted he has become more cynical about politics since the 2020 election.
"I have had so many people look me in the eye in private and say, I know the 2020 election wasn't stolen and then go out and say the exact opposite thing in public and just because of where the political winds were blowing, they felt it was necessary to do that," Richer said. "I've been surprised at the lack of accountability for actions such as that, and that has made me highly cynical."
Richer was voted out of the race for Maricopa County Recorder in the primary election, leaving some people wondering if standing up for what he believed in led him to lose the primary.
But Richer told 12News that he didn't just stand up for what he believes in during his campaign.
"I've stood up for what is absolute fact, not just what I believe in, but what is fact... that saddens me greatly that we are no longer sharing facts," Richer said.
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Decision 2024
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