Arizona Secretary Of State Receiving Violent Threats

ARIZONA — Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who, in part, oversees elections, announced Wednesday that she, her family and her office have received escalating threats of violence as Arizona's election results continue to be called into question.

Hobbs, a Democrat, made the announcement in a statement on Twitter. Hobbs said while she expected some vitriol during the 2020 election, these "ongoing and escalating" threats are emblematic of a larger issue facing the U.S.

"They are a symptom of a deeper problem in our state and country — the consistent and symptomatic undermining of trust in each other and our democratic process," she wrote. "Arizonans deserve to know that our elections are safe and secure."

Hobbs spokesperson Sophia Solis said in an email to the Associated Press that a threat posted on the Parler social networking site said: “Let’s burn her house down and kill her family and teach these fraudsters a lesson.”

Personal information about Hobbs, including her home address, also was posted on Parler, Solis said.

Hobbs said in her statement that she won't let any threats get in the way of performing her duties as an elected official, but she did call on state and national leaders to stop perpetuating misinformation. She specifically called on Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, to "stand up for the truth" amid his "deafening silence" on claims of fraud in Arizona's election.

At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, his first since before the election, Ducey spoke out about the threats lobbed at Hobbs, calling them "unacceptable."

"I denounce any threats of violence against anyone in elected office or any Arizonan or American," he said.

He also told reporters that the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which reports directly to him, is working with Hobbs' office to allocate any necessary resources to protect her and her family.

A spokesperson for the department confirmed to Patch that it is working with Hobbs' office but could not discuss the specifics of their actions.

"We take this issue very seriously," Bart Graves, spokesperson for the department of public safety, said. "We are working with the Secretary of State’s office but cannot discuss specific security measures."

Ducey later declined to say that President-elect Joe Biden had won the Arizona election and said he would let the current court challenges play out. A court hearing was expected to take place Wednesday for a lawsuit brought forth by the Arizona Republican Party against Maricopa County, seeking a new hand-count of a sampling of ballots in Maricopa County and a court order prohibiting the county from certifying election results until its case is decided by a judge.

Maricopa County has already completed the audit and said no discrepancies were found.

But the state party still wants the sample measured on a precinct level, rather than the audit that was conducted of the county’s new vote centers, which let people vote at any location across the county.

A prior case was thrown out by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Kiley.

While Ducey stayed neutral regarding election results, he emphasized his support for Arizona's election process — the state has conducted mail-in voting since 1993 — and said that he had seen no widespread fraud thus far. He said he will respect the results of the election once all legal challenges have been completed.

"We can trust our elections here in Arizona, and I'm going to respect the results of the election, but we are going to let the legal process play out," Ducey said.

The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.