When Stephen Richer ran for Maricopa County Recorder in 2020, he did so on a platform of making the job "boring again." The job, though, has become anything but thanks to his party taking a sharp right turn and embracing every election-denying conspiracy theory they can articulate — and many they can't. Richer has stood firm, defending the county's elections as sane and secure, which is no small feat thanks to his own party's histrionics. Richer has taken on Twitter trolls, stared down those threatening physical violence and sued Kari Lake for defamation and won. He does it with a smile, earnestly running the most transparent elections around, operating an open door policy with the media and even hosting a contest for residents to design new "I Voted" stickers. It's why we honored Richer in 2021 and why we're throwing accolades his way again this year. This time, though, it's more of a political obituary. The election-denying wing of his party put an end to his bid for a second term during the July primary.