Arizona election officials resign over threats about 2020
Election workers, one Democrat and one Republican, sit side-by-side to adjudicate ballots inside the Maricopa county elections building on Nov. 6, 2020 in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Two Arizona elections officials announced their resignation on Friday over threats that began after the 2020 election, according to Fox 10 Pheonix.
Why it matters: The news comes nearly two years after the election that former President Donald Trump baselessly told supporters was "stolen" because of fraud. The lie is now the focus of the Jan. 6 panel's hearings looking into what happened during the insurrection at the Capitol in 2021.
Driving the news: Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman said she and Elections Director Lynn Constabile are resigning over "the nastiness that we have dealt with" since the 2020 election, Fox 10 reported. Hoffman's last day is July 22, while Constabile's last day was Friday.
- Police provided additional protection and regularly patrolled Hoffman's home after the 2020 election due to threats, according to Fox.
What they're saying: "I’m a Republican recorder living in a Republican county where the candidate that they wanted to win won by 2-to-1 in this county and still getting grief, and so is my staff," Hoffman said, according to Fox.
- "I’m not sure what they think that we did wrong," she said. "And they’re very nasty. The accusations and the threats are nasty."
The big picture: Hoffman and Constabile are part of a larger movement of election workers leaving their jobs due to threats and harassment after the 2020 election.