The recording clerk and election director of Yavapai County, Arizona, have announced their resignations after a year and a half of enduring threats and heated criticism from supporters of former President Donald Trump, who continue to accept his lie that he lost the presidential election. 2020 for fraud.
Recording clerk Leslie Hoffman said Friday that she’s sick of “badness” and has taken a job outside the county. Her last day will be July 22. She said veteran elections director Lynn Constabile is out for the same reason and that Friday was her last day.
“A lot of it is because of the lowliness that we’ve been dealing with,” Hoffman explained. “I’m a Republican recording clerk living in a Republican county where the candidates they wanted won 2-1 and I still have all these problems and so do my staff.”
“I don’t understand what they think we did wrong,” he added. “And they are very disgusting. The accusations and threats are disgusting.”
Constabile was busy Friday doing a required “accuracy test” for the nearby primary and was unavailable for comment.
The experiences lived by Hoffman and Constabile are not unique. Election officials across the country have been threatened and harassed since Trump’s loss.
An election worker in Georgia testified before Congress last week about how her life was turned upside down when Trump and his allies falsely accused her and her mother of pulling fraudulent ballots out of a suitcase.
Kwen Matta, who worked in the Arizona secretary of state’s office for nearly 20 years, resigned from his post as chief of election security on May 6. He said on Twitter that he was fed up with the threats and harassment he and other election officials were subjected to.
In Arizona, county voter registration clerks are responsible for voter registration and ensuring that mail-in ballots are properly mailed to the more than 80% of voters who vote by mail. They earn just $63,800 a year, a salary set by the legislature that hasn’t risen in the decade Hoffman has held the job.
County election directors administer elections and oversee the counting of ballots. Constabile has been the director of the elections for 18 years and she will also be taking another job.
Hoffman says that because of the threats, the county sheriff’s office assigned him additional protection after the 2020 election. They began regular patrols around his home, something unheard of before.