Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake released an update Monday telling her followers that she is not backing away from her fight for the governor’s office and election reform in the state.
“While we come together on this unifying issue of restoring honesty to our elections, rest assured, Arizona, nothing will stop me from putting everything I have into reforming elections here in Arizona and in America,” Lake said.
An update on our Fight, Arizona: pic.twitter.com/tXrjrTFDc8
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 29, 2022
On Monday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) met and voted to certify the election, an election Lake called botched. She pointed out that many voting locations around the county experienced some kind of issue on Election Day. Printer problems caused ballots not to come out correctly, meaning the tabulators had troubled accepting the votes. While voters had the option to drop their ballot in “Door 3,” which Lake referred to as “a drawer,” lines at these voting centers still grew to abnormal lengths.
“Maricopa County, where it took two weeks to count, is the poster child for broken, botched elections,” Lake said.
Furthermore, Lake said another reason she is not giving up is the conflict of interests she sees in Maricopa County. As reported by The Arizona Sun Times, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer founded and operated the Pro-Democracy Republicans PAC beginning in 2021, which sought to build up Republicans who do not subscribe to the belief that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen in Arizona. Lake said the goal of this PAC was to keep her out of office.
Moreover, Lake pointed to her Democrat opponent, Katie Hobbs, as another conflict of interest in this election. Not only is Hobbs the governor-elect, but she is also the current Secretary of State in charge of the final certification of Arizona’s election.
“Perhaps the biggest conflict of interest of all, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the woman in charge of running her own election, who did almost zero campaigning, oversaw the botched election, is now threatening counties with legal action if they do not crown her governor by certifying the election that she botched,” Lake said. “You simply can’t make this stuff up.”
Additionally, Maricopa County BOS member, Steve Gallardo, was picked to be a member of Hobbs’s transition team.
Ultimately, Lake applauded those who spoke out against the BOS on Monday and those who believe this election should not be certified. Lake also stated this election should not be certified but acknowledged that she cannot proceed with legal action until after it is. Under Arizona law, an election challenge can only be filed after the results are certified.
Lake reassured her followers that she is cooking up a lawsuit to challenge the election results behind the scenes with a group of lawyers. She said the suit would come in accordance with Arizona’s laws.
“You’ll want to stay tuned for this one, trust me,” Lake said about her planned complaint.
Lake has already filed a lawsuit in this election to force Maricopa County to release documents relating to the irregularities seen on Election Day. She said those documents would be used for her larger complaint still to come.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
