XPost: alt.politics.elections, alt.politics.trump, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: biden@poops.pants   
      
   PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona authorities on Tuesday said they were investigating   
   whether a 27-year-old temporary election worker in the state’s 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 suspect’s beliefs.   
      
   Skinner said authorities were reviewing Walter Ringfield’s 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 staff’s 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   
   sheriff’s 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 sheriff’s 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 agency’s statement. The   
   public defender’s 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 county’s 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 don’t 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 party’s 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   
      
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