Arizona county’s new elections head shared voter fraud memes

By JONATHAN J. COOPER
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — A rural Arizona county where leaders have embraced voting machine conspiracies has hired an elections director who has promoted the false claims that voter fraud cost former President Donald Trump reelection in 2020. The two Republicans on the Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to hire Bob Bartelsmeyer, who shared memes on his personal Facebook page supporting Trump’s claims of fraud and promoting the lie that Dominion voting machines manipulated the outcome. The hiring is the latest controversial decision by the conservative majority in the southeastern Arizona county, where the Republicans on the board tried to have the ballots hand-counted in last year’s midterm election and then refused to certify the results, forcing a judge to step in again.