Election officials in Arizona certified the state’s midterm results during a canvassing ceremony on Monday night at the state Capitol, opening the door for candidates to begin requesting recounts or to challenge the results of their respective races.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is among those who are expected to challenge the results of their election losses, with the Republican announcing her campaign is already drawing up a number of lawsuits against the state. The Republican candidate has refused to concede more than three weeks after Election Day, claiming malfunctions with election machines unfairly cost her the race.
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“We’re drawing up lawsuits because we won’t have elections like they have in third-world countries,” Lake told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Monday night.
Lake, who lost by just 0.5 of a percentage point to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, is planning to sue Arizona’s largest county to overturn her election loss, alleging several voters were unable to vote on Election Day because of problems with ballot machines, according to earlier reports.
Maricopa County experienced a number of technological challenges on Election Day, resulting in long lines and widespread confusion at a number of polling places. The county began reporting problems with its printer settings on the afternoon of Election Day after some ballot tabulators began malfunctioning, prompting election officials to tell voters either to wait for the machines to come back online or to vote at another location.
Lake seized on those technological malfunctions, claiming they resulted in a stolen election.
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Steve Bannon on his War Room TV segment. “We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting. Because the people of Arizona were disenfranchised.”
Lake added: “It’s going to be real ugly.”
Election officials certified results on Monday evening, with Hobbs overseeing the ceremony — prompting an outcry from some Republicans who accused the current secretary of state of engaging in a conflict of interest.
As part of her current role, Hobbs is responsible for overseeing the state’s election processes. Republicans called on Hobbs to recuse herself from these duties as she campaigned for governor, but the Democrat refused to do so, arguing her office is not charged with counting the votes, so it does not pose a conflict of interest.
“Arizona had a successful election, but too often throughout the process, powerful voices proliferated misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters,” Hobbs said during the certification ceremony. “Democracy prevailed, but it’s not out of the woods. … 2024 will bring a host of challenges from the election denial community that we must prepare for, but for now, Arizonans stand proud knowing that this election was conducted with transparency, accuracy, and fairness in accordance with Arizona’s election laws and procedures.”
Lake’s lawsuit is likely to allege that the problems with Maricopa’s voting machines disproportionately affected Republicans, according to Time, as GOP voters are more likely to vote in person on Election Day compared to Democrats, who are more likely to cast their ballots early.
The Republican candidate spent much of her campaign reiterating claims from former President Donald Trump that mail-in ballots make elections susceptible to voter fraud, specifically causing his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020.
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County officials rejected claims that voters were denied the right to vote as election workers sorted out the problems, noting any voter who wanted to submit their ballot was able to do so.
At least one other candidate is likely to sue over the state’s election results, with GOP attorney general candidate Abraham Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee saying the results of his race were “afflicted with certain errors and inaccuracies” that caused the Republican to lose. Hamadeh sued over the results late last month, but a judge rejected the suit, noting it was filed prematurely.
