If you care about elections, vote for sanity in key Maricopa County supervisor races

It is not a sure thing that if Maricopa County election results are called into question again in November, democracy will hold.

That’s because two of the five county supervisors who stood tall throughout the turmoil of the 2020 and 2022 elections decided against seeking reelection.

Both supervisors — all five, really — have been relentlessly pilloried, harassed and threatened over their refusal to declare voting irregularities and open the door for Donald Trump and other failed MAGA candidates to snatch victory from defeat.

Would MAGA candidates undermine elections?

Running for supervisor seats in the July 30 Republican primary are candidates who run under the MAGA banner or align themselves with the movement.

They perpetuate the narrative that the elections process is not to be trusted or, worse, that the system is rigged against conservatives.

Whether they would, as supervisors, halt certification of election results unfavorable to MAGA or otherwise undermine the legitimacy of elections is an open question.

Moderates and independent voters who cast a Republican ballot need to carefully weigh their choice.

The importance of the vote cannot be overstated.

Three of the districts heavily favor Republicans, which means the winners of the GOP primary have a big advantage in the Nov. 5 general election.

District 1

Incumbent Jack Sellers, a Republican, faces a primary election challenge from Mark Stewart, a termed-out Chandler city councilman.

Stewart criticized, rightfully, the county’s mishandling of the 2022 election. The use of aging equipment and heavier paper led to improper printing of ballots at many voting locations. Those ballots were rejected by tabulation machines, resulting in long lines, confusion and frustrated voters.

But Stewart also used the problems of that year to call into question the county’s handling of the 2020 election and election trustworthiness. He wouldn’t say whether he’d certify recent election results; nor would he say whether Joe Biden won in 2020 or Katie Hobbs in 2022.

He also hewed to the far-right’s talking points that voting centers and drop boxes for collecting ballots must be eliminated to ensure election integrity and that voting must be restricted to local precincts.

Stewart boasts an endorsement from Rep. Andy Biggs, who was linked to the planning of the Jan. 6, 2021, protest in Washington, D.C., that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Biggs also has proudly championed MAGA’s grievances in Congress.

Stewart also has the backing of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, which landed itself in hot water after a vice chair said she’d like to “lynch” the county recorder.

The committee also has, in the name of MAGA, censured everyone from former Gov. Doug Ducey to all seven members of the Arizona Supreme Court for “unjustly” dismissing the 2022 election challenge cases of Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh.

While not necessarily an indicator of future performance, those associations raise questions about Stewart’s values and worldview.

District 4

Two Republicans are vying to replace Clint Hickman, whose family and family business, Hickman’s Family Farms, were subjected to the kinds of abuse emblematic of the MAGA movement.

(When a fire broke out at the business in the spring of 2021, destroying two barns and killing tens of thousands of hens, social media swirled with a conspiracy theory that shredded ballots from the 2020 election were burned in the blaze.)

Bob Branch, one of the two seeking to succeed Hickman, peddles similar MAGA narratives.

That includes vitriol directed at county Recorder Stephen Richer, who regularly takes to social media to knock down MAGA supporters’ many unfounded allegations of election fraud.

Branch, who in 2018 lost a close primary race for state superintendent, also maintained that he and Hamadeh “won” their elections, and that drawn-out counting of outstanding ballots overturned their victories.

Fed up with an extreme Legislature? You can change it

He claims that they were both cheated by the election system.

Branch’s opponent in the primary is Debbie Lesko, a three-term representative who decided not seek reelection to Congress.

She, like Branch, is a big supporter of Trump and has a history with MAGA for which she must answer with voters.

Lesko voted with the other three Republican members of the Arizona congressional delegation — Biggs, Paul Gosar and David Schweikert — opposing the certification of the 2020 Arizona election results right after order was restored following the storming of the Capitol.

Lesko has subsequently tamped down her MAGA association.

As recounted by Hickman, Lesko abstained from signing a letter from Biggs, Gosar and Schweikert intended to raise the heat on Maricopa County and the supervisors over the 2020 election.

District 2

As we noted in a previous editorial, Trump conservative candidate Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who got caught up in a sex scandal as a state lawmaker, is taking on incumbent Tom Galvin, a traditional Republican.

In 2016, a female lobbyist accused Ugenti-Rita of trying to recruit her for a threesome. Ugenti-Rita now — and without irony — accuses Galvin of supporting a liberal county library system that stocks sexually explicit books for children.

She also takes the far-right Freedom Caucus lawmakers’ position that regional transportation plans should be blown up to nix light rail and dilute public transportation spending — regardless of the funding compromise struck by the county, Valley cities and towns and three tribal nations.

The two other districts (3 and 5) feature serious Democratic and Republican candidates worthy of support.

Elections aren’t perfect and Maricopa County has had its share of screw-ups.

But to conflate earnest errors with willful manipulation of elections — to capitalize on them to undermine democracy — is unconscionable.

We have the power to prevent that starting with our vote.

This is an opinion of The Arizona Republic's editorial board.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County supervisor races are your chance to uphold democracy