It’s official. Arizona's conspiracy kooks have officially and irrevocably lost their freaking minds.

As if Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer doesn’t have enough to deal with – what with overseeing Tuesday’s primary election and working overtime to make sure the public knows where they can vote and how their votes are being counted – he’s now fielding death threats.

“You might not make it to your next little board meeting,” wrote one, um, admirer.

“We hope you f---ing die,” wrote another.

Meanwhile, a Thursday evening event at which he was scheduled to be the only speaker had to be canceled due to a threat on the building.

So what, you might wonder, has Richer done to deserve, apparently, to die? What nefarious plot has this crafty Republican cooked up on the eve of the election?

Behold the Pentel Pen Ploy -- 2022's answer to Sharpiegate.

Richer is asking voters to use special county-supplied Pentel pens when they go to the polls to cast their ballots in person. The felt-tip pens, he explains, have fast-drying ink, whereas the ink in ballpoint pens dries more slowly and will gum up the tabulation machines.

Gummed up machines means longer lines, slower results and possibly, more questioned ballots due to smeared ink.

You’d think the conspiracy crowd would be thrilled at the lengths to which Richer is going to ensure that every legal vote counts.  The text alerts that you're vote has been received and counted. The constant reminders of when and where and how to vote. The explanations for how the results will be released.

The man has bent over backwards to try to assure Maricopa County's voters that they can trust the vote.

Cheating? Report makes big claims about suspicious voting, provides no proof

Instead, the head kook, GOP Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward, is advising people not be “bullied” by the likes of Richer and to instead bring their blue or black pens to the polls.

Rep. Shawnna Bolick, who is hoping to voters will make her secretary of state so she can run elections, announces she knows somebody who says the Pentel pens will bleed through the paper -- presumably ruining your ballot.

Naturally, Gateway Pundit, the gossip rag of conspiracy buffs everywhere, smells a rat.

“Maricopa County Official Is Panicked Voters May Bring Their Own Pen to Polls,” screams the big blue headline.

The writer knows this, he says, because of Richer’s tweet.

Cue the GP writer: “The use of all caps to emphasize ‘please please’ and ‘all’ in his tweet about using the new “special pen” has overtones of desperation.”

The writer goes on to dissect several other Richer tweets, which lead him to conclude  this is ... wait for it ... Sharpiegate 2.0, that delightfully creative, easily debunked conspiracy theory that had Sharpies stealing Republican votes in 2020. 

As soon as the GP story dropped on Thursday afternoon, the threats came pouring in to Richer and the elections staff that is working long hours to ensure a smooth election.

A sampling of the  fan mail: 

“You guys are corrupt and stupid all at the the same time … hope the reckoning come and buries you in the ashheap you F’in traitor."

“Shove your Sharpies up your a--, you DIRTY, FILTHY, STINKING, LYING CHEAT. May karma slap you in the face like the little oath breaking criminal b---- that you are, you contemptible sack of s---. May your nefarious plans be thwarted and fall to the ground. May nothing you touch prosper. A curse on your filthy plans.”

“Kiss my a-- you morons, I will use my own pen, you damn unAmerican pieces of crap will not steal another election.”

I guess that last one's been listening to Kari Lake, who announced this week that she's already found fraud and vowed to go "supernova radioactive" if she doesn't win.

Kelli Ward, Kari Lake, Mark FInchem? You must be so proud, to see the result of all your hard work undermining trust in our elections bloom to its full poisonous fruit.

As my colleague E.J. Montini observed, they’re not just putting democracy in danger. They’re putting good people in danger.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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