Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks at a campaign event in Arizona.Ross D. Franklin/AP

When Tim Stringham Arriving at the “Harris Veterans” campaign launch Sunday at a Phoenix mall with Sen. Mark Kelly and California Rep. Ted Lieu, the 35-year-old primary candidate took a moment to acknowledge the obvious.

“You know it’s weird when the record-keeper candidate comes in here and talks to a U.S. Senator and a U.S. congressman,” he told the 30 or so volunteers packed into the cramped room for the start of a critical conversation. knocking on doors in the afternoon.

Stringham, a former JAG attorney, is the Democratic candidate for Maricopa County registrar, an office responsible for maintaining voter rolls and mailing ballots in a county of more than 4 million people. In a normal year, this is one of those vital but often anonymous jobs, like the assessor or auditor, that voters are only aware of from yard signs—if they are at all. But as Kelly pointed out a few minutes later, Maricopa’s elections have not been normal for a long time. fight for one A small number of down-ballot races like Stringham’s will determine the future of the democratic process in a county that has become ground zero for voter rejection in recent years.

“Before we talk about the presidential election, I want to talk about the county recorder race,” the former astronaut told pollsters in Phoenix. “The guy we have, Republican Steve Richer, has done a great job. And nothing against Tim here… but he did a really good job and we actually owe him a lot. “It may have saved democracy in a way.”

Stephen Richer, as I reported a new story and a department UncoverWhile he was praised across the country for his stance against election deniers after the 2020 and 2022 elections, he was also trying to make his choice. The district’s voting process is more transparent. But he has been vilified by members of his party, including the MAGA loyalist who is the 2022 Republican candidate for governor and the 2024 U.S. Senate candidate. Kari Lake, who blamed him for their losses that year. Right-wing state Rep. Justin Heap in July beat Richer Easily in the primary. While Heap did not directly say he believed the recent election was stolen, he welcomed the support of Lake and other prominent election deniers.

“He lost to a right-wing MAGA sycophant in the name of Donald Trump,” Kelly told volunteers preparing to knock on doors. Stringham “must win; Make sure you tell them that it’s really important that they get to the part of the ballot where they vote for Tim. Otherwise, we may have a problem here when we get to the time when people will be sworn in for these positions.

And it’s not just about the recorder race. More recently, in another polling event Sunday, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs helped pick up the votes of Daniel Valenzuela, a former firefighter running for the Maricopa Board of Supervisors. Valenzuela explained that the Republican-controlled board, which is essentially the county’s governing council, is involved in “more than 50 business lines,” from education to public safety. But board members drew the ire of the far-right for the way they managed the elections, for which they were responsible for voting and tallying on Election Day. Bill Gates and Clint Hickman, two Republican auditors who drew the ire of election deniers for certifying the last two elections, have chosen to retire this year. Another, Jack Sellers, was defeated in the primary by an election denier.

“I mean, these are solid auditors, responsive auditors, regardless of party,” Valenzuela told me. “Two of them decided not to run for re-election and one of them lost in the primary and it wasn’t very close. So what is the common point here? He was now running for Gates’ old seat, partly as a check against anti-democratic impulses on the right.

With only a few days until Election Day, Stringham had almost given up trying to find and persuade undecided voters. and was trying to track down known supporters and Democrats who hadn’t yet voted, reminding them of the importance of choosing candidates for every option on the county’s two-page ballot. But as has been the case for every Democrat who has won elections statewide or in Maricopa County in recent years, reaching out to crossover voters was a big part of his campaign. Stringham also believes defending the election process in Maricopa is a win-win issue.

“I think the reality is that most Arizonans actually like our election system,” he said. “Slow mail or ‘Why hasn’t my ballot arrived yet?’ We receive many complaints about issues such as. There aren’t many people who actually say, ‘We want voting by mail to be abolished.’ This doesn’t really exist.

His comments were a dig at Heap, who joined Republicans in the chamber. unsuccessful effort to do just that. Is there a way to tell if Stringham’s argument resonates? Republicans He appeared to be trying to move away from denial of the election as a campaign issue in the final stages.

“Turnion Point is encouraging everyone to vote early right now,” he said, referring to the political action committee founded by Charlie Kirk that was responsible for much of the Trump campaign. ground game in the state. “They’re doing the same thing we just did; They rustle the ballot papers. So they believe in the system, right?”

Stringham believed that the GOP “realized that the election denial strategy was failing, and they were trying to move away from that.” He stated that they avoided asking any questions about the rejection of the election and how it ceased to be a matter of discussion. His opponent is a perfect example of this new dynamic. “Not only did he vote early, but he is literally sending out text messages saying he was running to get out the vote.” boring. He just got Richer’s catchphrase!” said Stringham. “So they’re kind of trying to forget the world that’s happened in the last two, three, four years.”

It doesn’t mean that Election deniers have given up. Lake is still appealing his loss in the 2022 governor’s race; in fact, the state supreme court will reconsider his arguments in the case on November 6. There is no shortage of “Stop the Steal” candidates on the ballot and Republicans are laying the groundwork to challenge the results nationwide if Trump fails again. But Stringham was onto something. At least for now, Republican leaders are trying to get their voters to trust the process rather than reject it.

Charlie Kirk at the Trump rally in Scottsdale on Saturday He leaned into the message that Republicans control their own destiny. All they had to do was “keep track” of the 400,000 Republican ballots that had not yet been delivered. At one point, he asked people in the crowd to take a look at the small, hangar-like space where he was speaking. “There are about 280 people in the seating area here,” he said. “Our Attorney General in this state became Attorney General with 280 votes. And there were 200,000 Republicans who didn’t vote in the midterm elections.”

Democratic AG Kris Mayes drew boos from the crowd when she mentioned Kirk’s recent statement that he had directed the criminal division to investigate Trump’s comments about Liz Cheney. “He’s trying to dig into Donald Trump’s speech, but you know what? This ours not a mistake he “It’s a mistake, because we didn’t do the voting,” he said. “We could have easily found 300 more votes. We could have easily found 400 more votes. It’s easy to complain, but we can only complain if we collapse at the finish line, people.”

There was the usual chatter that the election would be “too big to rig,” as Donald Trump Jr. put it. But on an individual level, voters I spoke to felt encouraged by their experiences with the system. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that almost everyone votes by mail; Republicans like Kirk have been pushing for this since 2022, contrary to Trump’s past claims that this is a way for Democrats to steal the election. Some said they were encouraged by the SMS alerts they received from the county recorder’s office. per districtNotifies voters when ballots are “prepared, mailed, received, verified, and counted.” An added benefit of voting early is that voters are spared Election Day hassles, such as overheating printers or long lines, that Republicans have cited in the past as evidence of a conspiracy against them.

But there may be a simpler reason to explain the sudden optimism about the process: Recent polls show Donald Trump ahead in most states. If these results hold true, no one will need to come up with conspiracy theories to explain the results; They will gladly accept them.