Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has dropped the hammer on Democrat officials in her state and announced she is rejecting the results of her disputed election.
Lake is warning that her legal challenge to the outcome of her race against Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is going to “be real ugly.”
Arizona’s race for the governor’s office was controversially called for Hobbs, who refused to debate, hold rallies, or even campaign in the run-up to Election Day.
Hobbs, Arizona’s top election official, also refused to recuse herself from overseeing her own race.
On Monday, Hobbs certified her own win over Lake by approximately 17,000 votes.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel attended the certification as witnesses, according to ABC News.
With the certification complete, Lake has five days to file legal challenges in court.
As Lake noted during an appearance on Real America’s Voice “War Room” with host Steve Bannon, Arizona law states that a challenge can only be made after the results have been certified.
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit,” Lake told Bannon.
“And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit.
“We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to.
“We will not stop fighting,” she promised.
“Because the people of Arizona were disenfranchised.”
Presumably, she means both the Arizona Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The voters who decided to go to the polls on Election Day, as stated in our Arizona Constitution, were disenfranchised,” Lake said.
“Nobody believes Katie Hobbs won. I know Katie Hobbs knows she didn’t win,” Lake argued.
The Republican predicted, “It’s going to be real ugly” with Hobbs trying to govern if Arizonans don’t believe she really won.
WATCH:
.@KariLake: "We're ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit. 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." pic.twitter.com/NCqqjzlmt0
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 5, 2022
Lake was the clear favorite in her election.
She held the lead in nearly every poll in the six-week period leading up to the election.
in one survey conducted by the local Fox affiliate in late October, Lake led Hobbs by double digits.
FOX 10 Insider poll now has Kari Lake up over opponent Katie Hobbs by 11 points in the Arizona gubernatorial race 👀 pic.twitter.com/Wog4WQgqbP
— Ben Kew 🏌️♂️ (@ben_kew) October 26, 2022
The RealClearPolitics average of polls found Lake with a 3.5 percent advantage on Election Day, yet Hobbs won by a 0.6 percent margin.
Unprecedented problems on Election Day caused countless numbers of voters to be disenfranchised, mostly in Republican-heavy areas.
Maricopa County (the Phoenix metro area) suffered major Election Day chaos when ballot tabulators and ballot printers were not functioning at 71 polling locations, according to the county.
However, the Lake campaign puts the number at 114, or 53 percent of the sites.
All the machines were required to be tested and the ballot printers were used in early voting, yet these strange, widespread problems still occurred, likely impacting thousands of would-be voters.
Hours-long lines developed at multiple sites experiencing these problems.
The issues led the Lake campaign to argue that what happened was large-scale vote suppression of her supporters since Republicans voted 3-to-1 over Democrats on Election Day.
Poll worker Mike Peterson told the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors last week that hundreds of people at his voting location in the Paradise Valley area of Phoenix were, in effect, disenfranchised.
Peterson said 675 potential voters were waiting in line when his location officially closed at 7 p.m.
The would-be voters could have stayed in line and waited to cast a ballot, but most apparently gave up.
“Of those 675, do you know how many came in? One hundred and fifty,” he said.
“It means that you have personally disenfranchised voters.
“They have [come], they have seen and they have given up because they know what is going on.
In other words, more than 500 people who clearly wanted to vote did not, and that was just voters who showed up near the end of Election Day at one site.
This figure would not include those who might have been discouraged by long lines during the day.
Maricopa Poll Worker CONFIRMS: Poll Workers WERE NOT trained properly, voters were 100% disenfranchised.
“Every single one of us who’s a poll worker right now is making fun of you” pic.twitter.com/HjXrWM50Bx
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 28, 2022
Given the approximately 17,000 votes separating Lake and Hobbs, it would take a net of about 240 Lake supporters being prevented or discouraged from voting in each of the 70 ill-functioning polling stations to make the difference.
If the true number of polling locations experiencing issues was 114, that would translate to 149 voters per location.
These kinds of figures will be at the heart of Lake’s suit.
Issues raised by the Arizona Attorney General’s office in a November 19 letter to the Maricopa Board of Supervisors would also be included.
The letter was regarding election law concerning the tabulation of ballots evidently not being followed at polling locations.
The Lake campaign has called for a revote of the election in Maricopa County.
Lake told Fox News host Tucker Carlson Monday night, “We’re going to be drawing up some lawsuits in our election because we won’t have elections that are run like they’re run in Third World countries.”
.@KariLake: "We're sick of @katiehobbs' office and the Secretary of State’s office and what they’ve been up to. And we’re going to start fighting back, and we're going to be drawing up some lawsuits in our elections… We have too much to save in this country." pic.twitter.com/NWz1yPfJmN
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 6, 2022
“We have too much to save in this country to have our elections be run in that way,” she added.
READ MORE: Ballots Found Stuffed in Black Duffle Bags in Maricopa Country, Arizona AG Steps In
