The media is hyping up complaints by election officials that they are receiving threats for refusing to address complaints about voter disenfranchisement. Arizona Public Media reported in March that controversial former Cochise County Elections Director Lisa Marra received a death threat several weeks before the 2022 election, but an investigation by the Arizona Daily Independent found that Arizona Media incorrectly assumed it was Marra (pictured above).
The news went national, as Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08) used Marra to discuss those types of threats. Arizona Media quoted Marra telling him, “I believe that we should have some defined laws, we should have some penalties, we should have some things with teeth. It concerns me that the longer that we go on, the angrier people are getting, and at some point, there’s a tipping point.”
After submitting public records requests, Arizona Independent reporter Terri Jo Neff discovered that the threatening October 22, 2022, email was sent to Christine Roberts, the county’s chief deputy county attorney responsible for the department’s civil division and administrative matters. The affidavit from the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office for the search warrant to locate the person who sent the threat identified the victim as Roberts. It stated, “On 10-22-22, Christine Roberts (Chief Civil Deputy Cochise Attorney’s Office) received a threatening email about the upcoming elections).
Similarly, the affidavit for a search warrant from the Sierra Vista Police Department quoted the beginning of the email, “Attention Katie Hobbs, Kori Lorick, and Christine Roberts.”
The threatening email was sent to then-Secretary of State Hobbs and her top elections official, Lorick.
However, the articles have not been corrected. A March 29 article from Arizona Media is titled “Threats Against Former Cochise County Elections Director Come to Light” and discusses the threatening email.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times