Afghan War Vet and Attorney Tim Stringham Wants to Protect Arizona’s Democracy as the Next Maricopa County Recorder

A navy veteran since graduating from Arizona State University, Tim Stringham served in Afghanistan in 2012 and as an attorney in the Judge Advocate General Corp.

Now he would like to serve the people again in the protection of Democracy and the right to vote as the next Maricopa County Recorder, saying “America was built on the premise of a government ‘…of the people, by the people, for the people.’”

With the defeat of Mainstream Republican Stephen Richer in the primaries, Stringham promises that, if elected, “I’ll safeguard our elections and advocate for you, the voter” in his race against MAGA election-denying Justin Heap.

Mr. Stringham graciously took the time to respond to questions about his candidacy. 

The questions and his responses are below.

• Please tell the readers at least two reasons the Maricopa County Recorder position is important. 

“Elections and elections. The County Recorder is responsible for maintaining the voter rolls and it’s also responsible for all early voting, including voting by mail. And so, if you vote by mail, which is 80% of the county, your entire voting experience goes through the county reporter’s office. I’m running against somebody who’s trying to get rid of those mail-in ballots and I think if you’re trying to be in charge, they’ll vote by mail system, we probably shouldn’t have somebody who’s trying to get rid of it.”

“But I think beyond the excitement of elections, the county recorders’ offices also do deed recording and Arizona still has a deed recording system that’s quite antiquated. We don’t have laws that address deed fraud. Deed fraud is probably not an issue that is going to affect you. Your house is not going to be sold out from under you while we talk but I have spoken to people who found out that family homes were sold out from under them and flipped to a third party within a day. So, you can imagine that if you woke up one day and were told by the police ‘Hey, you can’t go there. You don’t own that house anymore.’ That would be pretty akin to someone’s closest nightmare. I think we need to look at ways to govern responsibly whether it’s elections or whether it’s for deed recording.”

• Please tell the readers at least two reasons you are better suited to be the next recorder compared to your Republican opponent. 

“Responsible leadership is the first one. We do genuinely have people questioning the state of our elections iin this state. That’s fine. If you’re questioning the state of elections, it sounds like you’re trying to be in a responsible citizen. That’s great. We want you to take a critical eye towards the government. My opponent has voted for and sponsored legislation to gut mail-in voting in the state. And if you look at the track record for all of these investigations, they have not produced evidence that we actually have rigged voting or that these aren’t safe systems. I think that’s It’s very irresponsible to take away 80% of Voters main way of voting if you can’t justify it with an investigation and I don’t think it’s fiscally responsible as well.”

“Second, I would say individual honesty. If you look at the Radical Republicans in the state. They’re led by Kari Lake. This is someone who has now admitted in court that she lied intentionally about a public official. We can disagree on policy. That’s fine. We should disagree on policy. We should have tough discussions. But there’s no point in discussing something if we’re going to discuss it with liars. I think the government should be trusted by the citizens. Whether they’re popular or unpopular should be second. Trying to rile people up should be second. We need to govern with integrity. So, if you’re running on the Kari Lake platform. If you’re proud to have Kari Lake’s endorsement, I think that should raise some questions as to the level of honesty that you’re willing to hold yourself to.”

• Please advise how your ground game operation will appeal to the Democrats Independents and Republicans, especially Republicans who may have voted for the current recorder who was defeated in the primary.

“I’m pretty open about my own political past. I’ve never been particularly politically involved. I think some people will be surprised to know that though I’m a Democrat now, the first vote I ever cast was for John McCain. I find that a lot of my views on a lot of subjects haven’t changed as much as people might think and I think one of the things that I’m concerned about is that now we have conservatives who no longer talk about responsible fiscal governance. They don’t talk about honesty, and we’ve descended into this world where conservatives have sort of been convinced, regardless of whose fault it is that it’s a win at any cost so scenario all the time.”

“In 1998, we created the mail-in program for voting largely as it is today. There was a Republican legislature at the time. Now we’ve gotten to the point where somebody like me who’s a Democrat is actually campaigning to protect a Republican program. A program that makes it easier for you to vote as a citizen and saves a heck of a lot of money for the county. I think you know as Democrats, we’re now in this favorable position where we get to go to Republicans and say hey the things that you believe in like saving taxpayer money, responsible governance, putting citizens in the driver’s seat about who gets elected. Traditionally those might be Republican talking points. We’re now in control of those talking points.”

“I think that what we saw in the Republican primary was that there is still a very considerable chunk of Republican voters who absolutely prioritize those things. Now for the 60 percent of the people who didn’t vote for Stephen Richter; We don’t want to write those people off either. You know a lot of those people have been sold a straw man about who Democrats are. We want to reach out to them and let them know if you’re not going to vote for us, it’s fine, but we respect you. We’re not the people that you think we are and we’re going to have your best interest at heart as well. I’m not just here to protect Democratic voters. We’re here to protect Republican voters. And we’re to have the same conversations about how we protect our institutions how to protect your right to vote on how to balance that with security without throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We think that’s the radical approach and I think we’ve already seen it in the polls. Forty percent of Republicans are there, and we’re going to go and take that argument to the other 60 percent. I think when they hear that from a Democrat, that’s not going to be what they were expecting. Maybe that’ll give them some pause and maybe that can be the start of a better conversation and relationship going forward.”

• Is there anything not covered in the first three questions that you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy for Maricopa County Recorder? Please explain.

“When you’re a veteran. When you are an active duty or reserve military service member. If you are a veteran who’s in Afghanistan? You tell yourself that what you’re doing is to protect everyone’s rights. And everyone’s right to vote. I think you’re crazy if you get into politics, but I also think we’re at a time where you’re crazy if you leave it to the kind of people who are in politics. I’m not someone who comes at this from a partisan agenda. I met somebody who saw this from the perspective of a veteran who the in the aftermath of January 6 was alarmed to hear Trump call for the termination of the U.S. Constitution. I’m alarmed to see Republicans absolutely abandon some of their ideals here in the State Legislature and try to drastically expand the size of bureaucracy for our elections while making it harder for you to vote. That’s how I approach this. You know, I want to protect our Democracy. And that’s it.”

Please click here to find out more information on Tim Stringham and his candidacy to become Maricopa County Recorder.