Arizona hopeful criticised for doubting integrity of ballot
ELECTION officials in Arizona pleaded with Kari Lake, the state’s Republican candidate, to tone down her rhetoric about the vote, with tensions high as the counting of ballots looked set to drag on into the weekend in the crucial state.
Ms Lake, the Donald Trumpendorsed nominee for governor who has refused to commit to accepting the results of the midterm election, is locked in a nail-bitingly close race with Katie Hobbs, her Democratic opponent.
The 53-year-old former TV anchor said on the conservative Charlie Kirk Show podcast: “Now, I feel 100 per cent confident we are going to win this, I hate that they’re slow-rolling and dragging their feet and delaying the inevitable.
“They don’t want to put out the truth, which is that we won.
“We’re going to win this, and there’s not a darn thing they can do about it.
But they’re trying to pour cold water on this movement.”
Approximately 1.1 million ballots in Maricopa, the state’s largest county, had been recorded as of yesterday, with 400,000 still left. Ms Hobbs is leading with 50.7 per cent of the vote to Ms Lake’s 49.3 per cent. Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, warned: “Everyone needs to tone the rhetoric down. Quite frankly, it is offensive for Kari Lake to say these people behind me are slow-rolling this.”
In Arizona, where many people vote early, officials have to verify and approve ballots in a process that can take days or weeks. The county had initially cited some printing problems, claiming the ink on some ballots was too faint for their machines to read.
But, as a state central to widespread conspiracy theories after Mr Trump’s loss in 2020, some Republicans have been able to leverage the problems in Maricopa to call for the elimination of early voting and counting machines.
The former president added fuel to the flames yesterday, writing on his social media platform Truth Social: “These people are incompetent corrupt. Their [sic] finding some very strange ballots? Be careful, we MUST PROTECT KARI & BLAKE!” Referring to Blake Masters, who is also standing in the state.
Ms Hobbs said: “This election will be determined by the voters, not by the volume at which an unhinged former television reporter can shout conspiracy theories.”