Arizona poll worker arrested for stealing election security equipment: reports

A temporary election worker in Arizona's Maricopa County has been arrested after authorities said he stole election security equipment.

According to KTAR News, Walter Ringfield, 27, was taken into custody Friday and booked into jail on theft and criminal damage charges. He wasn't eligible to be released on bond as he's on probation for a previous felony, according to court records obtained by the outlet.

The theft happened Thursday as the county's Elections Department preps for a July 30 primary. Early voting begins July 3.

Ringfield is accused of stealing a security fob and keys that are used with tablets at the election center.

"Election workers conducting daily inventory Friday morning discovered that an item was taken from the Ballot Tabulation Center the previous evening, according to the Maricopa County Elections Department," said the report. "'Staff took immediate action to investigate the matter and contacted the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,' Jennifer Liewer, a spokesperson for the elections department, said in a statement Monday."

Ringfield was previously a registered Democrat, according to Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of The Washington Post. He is not currently registered with a party.

In posts flagged by the liberal group Meidas Touch, online sleuths including Allison "Mueller, She Wrote" Gill claim to have identified that Ringfield has shut down most of his social media accounts, but posted screenshots of his account on former President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social, where he has reportedly reposted content "from pro-Trump MAGA accounts like The Epoch Times, Gateway Pundit, The Babylon Bee, and Catturd." This has yet to be confirmed by local reporters.

Regardless of Ringfield's politics, a number of Trump-supporting officials have landed in trouble for allegedly trying to interfere with election equipment as part of their effort to prove the 2020 presidential election was rigged. This includes former Mesa County, Colorado clerk Tina Peters, who is facing trial next month for breaching voting machines, and was already convicted last year for obstructing government operations.

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