Judge rules Maricopa County election worker names will remain secret

A judge ruled the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office does not have to disclose the name of low level election workers to the public.

We the People Arizona Alliance, a group known for spreading election conspiracy theories, filed a lawsuit in 2022 seeking the names of people who performed signature verification on early ballots in the 2020 general election. The group said that some election workers verified signatures too quickly and it wanted to further investigate training and procedures for those workers.

The Recorder’s Office declined to provide the names of low-level and temporary election workers, citing concerns that disclosure would subject those workers to threats and harassment.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, Elections Director Scott Jarrett and former Assistant Director Kristi Passarelli all testified that they and other election officials have faced frequent threats in recent years.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney agreed.

“The Court finds that the Recorder has established in this case legitimate security concerns about public disclosure of the identities of lower level and non-managerial employees,” Blaney wrote. “The threats and harassment that these employees face are both alarming and pervasive.”

Richer praised the ruling.

“All [we] do [on lawsuits] is win, win, win, no matter what,” he said in a text message.

Blaney acknowledged that, under Arizona law, the public has the right to access a broad array of public information and documents about their government.

However, in this case, he found the need to protect non-managerial election workers from harassment outweighed the need for greater transparency.

“But here, Defendants do not seek to shield their employees from ridicule or hypothetical threats,” Blaney wrote. “Defendants’ line employees have been the target of actual, credible threats, and the causal connection between the employees’ duties and the threats is far from tenuous.”

Shelby Busch, co-founder of We the People Arizona Alliance, did not respond to a request for comment.