With Democrat Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs looking likely to become Arizona’s next governor, Republican Kari Lake refuses to concede, alleging election improprieties. Almost half the vote centers in Maricopa County experienced machine tabulation problems on Election Day, resulting in long lines and fears that the ballots never ended up being counted or were commingled with ballots that had already been counted.
Republicans vote in heavy numbers on Election Day while Democrats vote heavily through early ballots, and the tabulation problems appeared to take place mostly in Republican areas of the county.
“Tens of thousands of Maricopa County Voters were disenfranchised,” Lake tweeted on Thursday. She said her legal team is doing everything it can. On Wednesday, the Kari Lake War Room account tweeted, “Imagine if the tabulators had worked in primarily red districts! Again, this election was irreparably compromised by voter disenfranchisement. We don’t care if this is unprecedented. The appropriate thing to do would be to let Maricopa County cast their votes again.”
Arizona, we are still in the fight. pic.twitter.com/ytaGvqG5J0
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 17, 2022
Lake’s Senior Advisor Carolyn Wren said in a video that the campaign’s attorneys asked Maricopa County why 48 percent of the tabulators on voting day — when Republicans largely vote — weren’t working, yet for weeks before that, when Democrats largely vote, including at the voting centers, there were no problems. She said they had received no response.
Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk echoed the complaint, “This same scene played out tens of thousands of times all across Maricopa County,” he tweeted. “How many voters were disenfranchised or simply ran out of time? If the majority of ED voters were Democrats, this would be the number 1 news story in America still today. Total joke.”
Caroline gets it. pic.twitter.com/7WQBDAA0rZ
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 18, 2022
Lake has been tweeting video stories from voters discussing how they were turned away from voting due to the tabulation machine problems. One featured “Kevin,” who said after he found all the tabulation machines down at the location he went to, “He was then directed to new and out of the way voting location in an attempt to dissuade him from voting.”
Many of the videos she posted featured voters who went and checked later to see if their ballot had been counted, and it had not, a complaint that has come up repeatedly.
People packed the Maricopa County Supervisors’ meeting on Wednesday, many testifying regarding their problems voting (public comment starts about 37 minutes in). Several called for Supervisor Bill Gates, the board chair, to resign. Some brought up the conflict of interest for Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, an attorney, to run a PAC that supports Republican election fraud deniers while he oversees elections.
One woman testified, “If Florida has 12.4 million more people who live in it than live in Maricopa or Arizona in general, and they can count their ballots in five hours under a hurricane watch, and we are on Day 9, we’ve got problems we need to address.” Very few had anything good to say about how the election was conducted.
Supervisor Thomas Galvin, an election fraud denier, dismissed their concerns and ignored any possible criminal laws that may have been violated. “If people have issues with how long it takes to count the votes, then go to the legislature,” he said. He praised the system, “I want to tip my hat to the election workers who got to work immediately to rectify the problem.” Supervisor Steve Gallardo declared, “I believe our system is safe, secure and accurate.”
A protest demanding a new election is scheduled for Friday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., with a caravan of vehicles driving in a loop around the Maricopa County Supervisors’ office and the Maricopa County Tabulation and Elections Center (MCTEC). It’s labeled a “Maricopa Honkening” similar to the Freedom Canadian truckers’ convoy. The flyer assured people that it would not be another “Jan. 6 setup” and advised them to be “peaceful” and not break any laws. The organizers would not identify themselves due to fear of being targeted.
A source who wishes to remain anonymous told The Arizona Sun Times, “There are many groups, might be the largest Republican protest in Maricopa County in a long time.” Protesters have gathered outside MCTEC periodically since Election Day.
“Canvass Queen” Liz Harris, who appears likely to win her race for the Arizona Legislature, issued a press release on Thursday stating, “It has become obvious that we need to hold a new election immediately.” She asked how the Republican state treasurer, Kimberly Yee, received more votes than the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate and governor. There were thousands of voters who cast federal-only ballots, since they did not provide proof of citizenship to qualify them to vote for state and local races.
A.R.S. 16-672 provides an avenue for a new election for one of five reasons, including illegal votes or a candidate or measure that did not get enough votes to win. Challenges under that provision may not be brought until after the canvassing has occurred, which is why many of the candidates have not filed lawsuits yet. The canvass is scheduled for Dec. 5.
At the end of Thursday evening, Lake trailed Hobbs by 16,780 votes, 49.7 percent to 50.3 percent, not quite enough for the 0.5 percent difference to trigger an automatic recount. According to ABC-15 Data Analyst Garrett Archer, there are about 10,700 ballots left to count from four counties, mainly from Maricopa County. Many are provisional ballots, so they may not qualify to be counted.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Kari Lake, please go away. You lost. Show some grace.
Kari Lake lost. That is all there is to it.