Arizona's Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has reportedly gone into hiding after allegedly receiving death threats for his handling of the midterm election results within Arizona's largest county.
While speaking to a local TV station, Gates confirmed he has moved to an "undisclosed location" and been given security detail.
The rancor between Gates, a Republican official, and factions of Arizona voters played out a full week past Election Day (Nov. 8), after Maricopa officials had difficulty processing up to 40% of the ballots submitted on that day — due to a combination of printer/ink errors and other machine malfunctions.
The Maricopa precinct voters waiting in line were then asked to entrust their open paper ballots to a so-called "Box 3," which would be processed at a different location.
Gates and other election officials tried to explain Maricopa County's problems in various press conferences, but these sessions might have raised more questions than answers, given how certain Arizona Republicans — such as gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Senate candidate Blake Masters — had previously been critical about Maricopa's problems with tabulating the 2020 presidential election results in a timely manner.
The 2020 election was also under Gates' watch.
On Oct. 27, 2022, or 12 days before Election Day, RNC National Committee member Tyler Bowyer fired off a potentially prophetic tweet, voicing his concerns about Maricopa County's penchant for having "1) long lines in key areas, 2) Equipment malfunctioning at fewer voting centers, 3) Running out of paper or ink, 4) Chain of custody of ballots."
On Sunday, Newsmax chronicled reports of the Arizona attorney general office's election integrity unit investigating Maricopa County's electoral-processing problems.
It's unclear as to how long Gates has been hiding from the alleged death threats, but it's worth noting: On a video dated Sunday, Gates tried to answer reader questions about whether "Election Day printer problems impacted certain areas" of Maricopa County more than others.
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