Is Arizona’s voting system going to face a reckoning? It was not long before NPR and other mainstream media outlets officially called the Arizona gubernatorial race for Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbes when the Republican Party of Arizona accused Maricopa County of disenfranchising voters.
As the Arizona Republican Party has pointed out, the state’s election has been plagued with some issues. For once, a total of 25 percent of vote tabulation machines in Maricopa County were not working on Election Day, Townhall reports. County officials claimed that the problem stemmed from a “printer setting issue.” A judge did not extend the voting hours despite an official request filed by the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
Here is a message from Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer with an update for @maricopacounty voters on Elections Day. pic.twitter.com/OkQczCklGb
— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 8, 2022
BREAKING: Maricopa County says that they have “identified the solution” for tabulator issues.
“County technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have resolved this issue.” pic.twitter.com/QvA3UCrEqQ
— Cameron Arcand (@cameron_arcand) November 8, 2022
Now the Arizona GOP has moved to accuse the county of disenfranchising Republican voters.
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has urged voters to submit any information they may have on issues they had either with ballots or when voting on election day:
If there was an issue with your Ballot or an issue voting on Election Day, please submit that information here: https://t.co/QT9hsOZvTi
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 14, 2022
“The Republican Party of Arizona has partnered with Big Data Polling to conduct exit polling on Arizona voters following the 2022 Midterms General Election. Data from November 1st, 2022, through November 8th, 2022, indicates that Republican voters were disproportionately and negatively impacted while voting in Arizona’s GOP strongholds,” the Arizona GOP said in a statement last weekend. “Exit polling shows that a low of 10 percent to a high of 17 percent of total turnout is Election Day Drop Offs. To be clear, that is defined as a voter who physically delivered their mail-in ballot to a polling station on Election Day. While historic, the publicly reported information showing a 13% drop-off rate correlates with our exit poll data.”
“Of those who reported problems casting a ballot on Election Day, 28% live and vote in the 1st Congressional District (REP), 14% in the 4th Congressional District (DEM), 30% in the 5th Congressional District (REP), 14% in the 6th Congressional District (DEM) and 13% in the 8th Congressional District (REP),” the statement continued. “It was no secret that Republicans intended to vote on Election Day. The RPAZ and others publicly urged Maricopa County to prepare for a historic day of turnout. Sadly, that fell on deaf ears. The officials should have known better after an unprecedented number of Election Day voters during the Primary Election in August. While Democrats are more likely to vote by mail and thus were disproportionately less likely to be harmed by problems with tabulators and printers that arose on Election Day.”
Once again AZ elections are the laughingstock of America.
Voter suppression reared its ugly head in Arizona at the hands of Maricopa County.
Our data proves so ft. @Peoples_Pundit & @kelliwardaz pic.twitter.com/CNQ0V4WNvU
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) November 13, 2022
Lake has also appeared on TV news on numerous occasions to discuss the deteriorating faith Arizonans have in their political system.
.@KariLake: "We need to get in there and restore faith in our elections. We can’t be the laughingstock anymore, and when I’m Governor, I won’t allow it." pic.twitter.com/TyRuBcTrr8
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 13, 2022
