Thank your local election officials, because this year is going to be a nightmare. Via the Washington Post:
PHOENIX — As the board of supervisors for Arizona’s largest county abruptly ended a meeting late last month, a swarm of people rushed toward the dais, shouting that the members were illegitimate.
The Maricopa County leaders made a beeline for a side door and were swiftly escorted out of the chamber by security guards, who called for backup from the sheriff’s office. After the meeting’s live-feed went dead, a member of the crowd yelled that a “revolution” was underway.
“I’m here today to put you on public notice and to inform you that you are not our elected officials,” said Michelle Klann, co-founder of a pro-Trump group, from a podium she had commandeered. “This is an act of insurrection. Due to all the voter fraud, you have never been formally voted in.”
The scene at the Feb. 28 meeting terrified many Maricopa employees and others who were reminded of what happened after Joe Biden won the county — and, with it, Arizona — in the 2020 presidential race. Back then, Trump supporters used baseless fraud claims to try to pressure or scare elected leaders into changing the results for the metro Phoenix county, which is home to more than half of Arizona’s residents.
Trump is, of course, encouraging intimidation and violence on his behalf, and has conditioned his cult members to believe any election decision not in his favor is illegitimate.
The crowd that confronted county leaders on Feb. 28 included supporters of a new Arizona-based anti-government group that Klann co-founded called The Peoples Operation Restoration. The group’s website features a painting of Trump dressed as a Founding Father and riding a horse.
Citing false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and challenges to the validity of U.S. laws and structures, supporters have shown up to Maricopa meetings and offices in recent weeks delivering paperwork that falsely claims leaders are illegitimate and have broken the law.
Klann and supporters gained attention for a similar effort waged against school boards around the nation involving pandemic-era public health measures, said Katie McCarthy, an investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. The strategy, she said, had served as a “harassing intimidation tactic” that is now being echoed in the election denial movement in Arizona.
Some of the quasi-religious group members told reporters they did not recognize the county supervisors’ authority because they do not believe the results of the 2020 election. So there you go.
