Arizona county hires election director who spread false claims about 2020

Cochise county, a border county where two Republican supervisors have pushed for a hand count of ballots and previously refused to certify the 2022 election results, chose to hire Bob Bartelsmeyer, an elections director who has shared social media posts with debunked election fraud claims. The county supervisors approved him in a 2-1 vote with the two Republican supervisors voting in favor, while the Democratic supervisor voted against him.

Before he came to La Paz county, Bartelsmeyer served as a county clerk in Missouri and held elections-related roles in Arizona, Florida and New Mexico, according to the Parker Pioneer.

In several counties in swing states, Republicans who believe fraud claims have taken over local boards or roles in charge of elections, giving more prominent voices to these claims. In Spalding county, Georgia, Republicans gained control of the elections board and canceled Sunday voting in 2021. In a small town in Michigan, a clerk who allegedly stole election equipment to try to prove fraud has become both a hero to election deniers and the subject of a recall attempt. And in one Virginia county, the entire elections staff recently quit their jobs after Republicans took over the local elections board and started pushing fraud claims.

In a handful of GOP states, election-denying secretaries of state won their races in 2022.

The widespread election denialism in the county has caused a schism in the rural community. Opponents of the two Republican supervisors fear they could see more attempts to derail the vote there in 2024.