Tired of battling election deniers, Stephen Richer deletes X account

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer has deleted his account on X, formerly known as Twitter. And contrary to what Arizona’s most hyper-online right-wingers claim, it’s not because some vote-counting conspiracy is in the offing.

He just doesn't want it anymore.

Deleting his account was a “post election promise to myself,” Richer said in a statement to Phoenix New Times. “For four years, I tried to answer as many questions as possible and be as accessible as possible.”

Richer is currently busy counting and curing ballots from Tuesday’s election. For the past four years, he’s been on the front lines of the battle against election misinformation, using the social media platform to bat down election conspiracy theories, denialism and tales of nonexistent voter fraud. Richer has often patiently and thoroughly responded to critics — including the owner of X himself, Elon Musk.

“I’ve paid my ticket. I stayed on to make sure I answered as many voter questions as possible through Election Day,” Richer said in his statement. “I get to do what makes me happy now.”

It’s not hard to see why being the foremost defender of Arizona’s elections would have been less than a good time. The Arizona GOP turned on Richer as he vouched for Maricopa County’s elections against allegations of voter fraud in 2020 and 2022. During this year’s Republican primary, the GOP successfully backed election-skeptic and state Rep. Justin Heap, costing Richer a chance at a second term. Heap, who is on track to beat Democrat Tim Stringham in the general election, will be Maricopa County’s next recorder.

The 2024 election was a big success for Trump and Republicans — though Kari Lake is still likely to lose Arizona’s open Senate seat to Democrat Ruben Gallego — but that hasn’t quelled the right-wing ire Richer faces on social media. Conspiracy theories, about an election their preferred candidate handily won, still abound.

The deletion of Richer’s account has only emboldened the conspiracy-minded. Right-wing X thinks this development is bigger than it is.

On the platform, retired Canadian wrestler Val Venis asked if Richer had been arrested, asking Lake — who lost a defamation suit to Richer — if she had “any insight.” State Sen. Justine Wadsack, who lost her reelection bid in the Republican primary, also played into the paranoia. She shared a photo of Richer’s now deleted account and asked Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk, “What’s going on?”

Nothing’s going on, at least not beyond those people being insufferable. Maricopa County’s lead election misinformation buster, who will be leaving office in January, is just taking some time off from the place where he gets yelled at all day.

Instead, he’s spending it helping to process ballots, a process that takes roughly 10 to 13 days due to state election law. Full results aren’t expected until late next week, which means there’s a lot of work left to be done.

A social media cleanse is probably healthy. Once all ballots are tallied — and once defending the integrity of county elections administration is no longer his literal job — we’ll see if sane people’s favorite keyboard warrior returns.