Maricopa County Recorder-elect wants to return office’s focus to elections

PHOENIX — The new head of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office wants to make the office “boring again” by focusing on delivering competent elections and keeping politics out.

“Our initial goals will be premised on building confidence in the office and in the process, getting the office out of partisan activity and political activity,” Recorder-elect Stephen Richer, a Republican, told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

“We won’t be engaging in spats with elected officials,” he added. “We won’t be using taxpayer funds to do partisan voter registration drives. We’ll instead focus on what our narrow scope is…and do what we are tasked with doing.”

Incumbent County Recorder Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, conceded his race to Richer on Thursday after seeing he was trailing by 4,652 votes. Only 6,715 ballots remained to be counted in Maricopa County at the time.

Richer is an attorney in Phoenix with a background in public policy. He was born in Salt Lake City and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, where he met his wife, Lindsay. They both moved to Arizona about five years ago.

His interest to run for county recorder began in 2018 when the state’s Republican party asked him to look into election administration policy changes that had been made.

“When I moved here, I don’t think I knew what the recorder’s office was or who was the occupant of it,” Richer said. “I’d like to go back to the semi-anonymous nature of it.”

He likened the county recorder position to a football referee, saying a referee that’s doing a good job is hardly noticed.

“I would like that to be the motto for the county recorder’s office, where we set the stage and there’s a stage you can trust but that we aren’t making big mistakes or advantaging one team or the other,” Richer said.

Fontes said he called Richer to congratulate him and to offer him a tour of the facilities. He also said he did his job and was proud of his staff.

Richer credited Fontes for making improvements and running a smooth general election this year, adding there were some concerns and questions that will be looked into.

He also said he knew it would be difficult to unseat an incumbent, especially because his campaign wasn’t well funded. He also didn’t think it would be a strong year for Republicans.

“I think we only won because a lot of people were really willing to work very hard for my campaign and making this Recorder’s Office boring again and making it have a process that people have confidence in,” Richer said.

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