Top Arizona election official forced to resign as threats get 'worse and worse': report

Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman, a Republican, announced earlier this week that he will not be returning to the job for the 2024 election, The Guardian reports, "Due to years of threats he faced at work and the punishing environment" he's endured since 2020.

Hickman voted to confirm Arizona's largest county's 2020 election results, according to the report, "despite an aggressive campaign" from ex-President Donald Trump and GOP allies.

"After the election in 2020, it’s gotten worse and worse," he said. "I started to feel like all I get to do is play defense in this job any more … I thought I was looking way too much in the rearview mirror.”

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Hickman emphasized, "I can certainly play the blame game all day long. But we need some solutions. And I don’t know what those solutions are at this short moment. How about this? Maybe everybody needs to start watching Mr Rogers again and start treating people nicer."

The Guardian notes, "Maricopa county became a national flashpoint in 2020, then again in 2022. Errors like printing problems or the use of certain pens became the subject of endless speculation and conspiracies that still linger today. And 2024 will undoubtedly bring more, as the county is a critical piece of a swing state, one that both Trump and Biden will want to win to complete their electoral map."

The news outlet also notes Hickman is "one of few officials who have seen the person who threatened them prosecuted. Mark Rissi, of Iowa, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison over threats he made to Hickman and to the state’s attorney general. In the voicemail Rissi left for Hickman in September 2021, he said he was going to 'lynch' the supervisor. 'You’re gonna die, you piece of [expletive]. We’re going to hang you. We’re going to hang you.'"

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The Guardian's full report is right here (subscription required).