Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates teaching at ASU this fall

Starting this fall, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates will be teaching about the intricacies of election administration and directing research at the brand-new Arizona State University Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory called MODL.

According to Gates, MODL was created in response to a growing population of voters who had voted for losing candidates denying the results and making false election fraud allegations against those in charge. Through MODL, Gates said he wants to devote his post-politics career to correcting disinformation about election results through public education. He also spends time encouraging students to seek careers in running elections.

“We’re a swing state. So we are one of seven states that are really deciding presidential elections. So to an extent, people think that this provides advantages for them, either political, fundraising or otherwise. Then I also think there is something in our political DNA. We are 3,000 miles away from Washington D.C. We have a healthy cynicism of government. Unfortunately, I think people have taken advantage of that in a way. Twisted it in a way to where now the folks that are in elections are subjected to threats,” Gates said.

In December, Gates is retiring from the Board of Supervisors, and with his retirement comes a new documentary about him produced by “The New Yorker.” Titled “Denial,” the film follows the supervisor as he fights to uphold the integrity of elections in Maricopa County, the most populous county in one of America’s most important battleground states. The documentary will air Thursday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m.

“We knew at that point already that there was going to be a lot of attention on that particular election. By that point we had a lot of people starting to attack election workers, questioning the system. Nobody had really shown the human side. I talk about this a lot. Our elections aren’t run by robots, they aren’t run by faceless bureaucrats, but they are run by people,” Gates said. Adding, “We saw this as an opportunity to humanize the experience of election workers.”

Bill Gates joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss his new position at ASU and the intricacies of fighting election result denial.