A rural Arizona county whose local officials have embraced election denialism appointed a new director Tuesday to lead the county’s elections who has previously cast doubt on election results.
Cochise county, a border county where two Republican supervisors have pushed for a hand count of ballots and previously refused to certify the 2022 election results, chose to hire Bob Bartelsmeyer, an elections director who has shared social media posts with debunked election fraud claims. The county supervisors approved him in a 2-1 vote with the two Republican supervisors voting in favor, while the Democratic supervisor voted against him.
Bartelsmeyer, previously the elections director in smaller La Paz county, Arizona, posted multiple times on his Facebook page about the 2020 election, making false claims about Trump’s loss, widespread fraud and Dominion voting machines, according to reporting by Votebeat.
One post he shared from 2020 said: “Please join me by posting: Trump legally won in a landslide.” He posted multiple times about then Trump attorney Sidney Powell’s lawsuits over the 2020 election. He also posted an image with a quote about how election fraud is “treason”.
Before he came to La Paz county, Bartelsmeyer served as a county clerk in Missouri and held elections-related roles in Arizona, Florida and New Mexico, according to the Parker Pioneer.
In comments to the supervisors at a public meeting Tuesday, Bartelsmeyer tried to distance himself from his social media...
In certain instances, it is evident that misinformation is created and disseminated on social media by exploiting sensitive issues and presenting unverified claims as factual events. Presented bel...