Arizona secretary of state given protection following death threats
“The death threats are pouring in,” Hobbs’ press secretary, C. Murphy Hebert, told CNN. Hobbs’ office had made the request for a security detail to Gov. Doug Ducey’s office on Thursday afternoon.
Thursday’s request for security was prompted by an incident involving a Gateway Pundit reporter who misidentified himself as a “YouTuber” and ran after Hobbs and her press staff, according to Hebert. Earlier that same day, the secretary’s office had received a “very specific death threat asking about what she was wearing that day so she could be identified easily,” Hebert told CNN.
The review is being overseen by a company whose chief executive supported former President Donald Trump and shared election conspiracy theories in since-deleted tweets. The audit’s GOP organizers have ignored requests from election integrity groups to allow nonpartisan election administration experts to observe the process.
“This is not like any audit I’ve ever seen,” Mark Lindeman, the acting co-director of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan organization focused on technology and election administration, previously told CNN. “If it intends to be perceived as fair-minded and credible, they’ve made some bad mistakes.”