PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says her office is launching an investigation into Arizona's 2020 and 2022 elections.
"My office will investigate the fake electors situation, and I will take very seriously any effort to undermine our democracy," Mayes said in a statement.
The Attorney General said her office would work with county attorneys and local law enforcement to protect election workers.
That was welcome news to former Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman, the subject of two years of threats and harassment in wake of the 2020 election.
"It's a very Republican county, a Republican recorder. Other Republican candidates won, a 2-1 margin," Hoffman said. "When I started getting the threats the sheriff's department started patrolling around my house a couple of times a day. I quit going to places."
Hoffman resigned last summer.
One of 16 election officials, from 10 counties, has either retired or resigned since 2020. Most of them cite harassment or threats from former President Donald Trump supporters.
"A lot of elections officials found themselves the subjects of death threats, a lot of harassment and intimidation was going on," Mayes said.
Hoffman is glad someone is taking the threats seriously. "It made me feel like the elections officials around the state had been listened to and that she took some of these threats seriously for everybody," she said.
The attorney general says her office will also investigate fake elector schemes.
In 2020 there were several of them in Arizona, including one by the state Republican Party involving former party chair Kelli Ward, and state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern.
The U.S. Justice Department is also investigating the Republican Party's fake elector plan.
