Maricopa County, Arizona, is having some issues with ballot tabulation with 20% of the ballots, but Republicans, like Kari Lake, are spreading misinformation.
Lake tweeted:
I am getting flooded with calls and text messages from people who are having trouble voting all over Maricopa County.
THIS is why we must reform our elections. https://t.co/oFFElskQFs
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— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 8, 2022
Here is the real story from Votebeat Arizona:
The machines that tabulate ballots at Maricopa County vote centers are having widespread issues, with about 20% of locations affected.
The affected vote-counting machines are rejecting about one ballot out of every five ballots inserted, Maricopa County Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates said at a news conference on Election Day, about three hours after polls opened.Â
Officials do not know yet what is causing the problem, but they are offering voters other secure options while they work to determine it. In an attempt to get ahead of conspiracy theories, Gates said that “none of this indicates any fraud or anything of that sort” and assured the public that ballots cast at affected locations would be properly counted.
“Everyone is still getting to vote,” Gates said. “No one is being disenfranchised. And we have redundancies in place.”
The actual story of what is going on in Maricopa County sounds much different than what Lake and Charlie Kirk suggested.
Maybe it wasn’t such a brilliant idea for Republicans to wait until the last minute and vote in person.
Technical problems happen in every high-turnout election, but in the age of Trump’s big lie, everything in right-wing eyes is evidence of fraud or a stolen election.
People are getting to vote. Votes are still being counted, but Lake and her supporters are laying the groundwork for a false claim that the Arizona gubernatorial election was stolen from her.
Get ready for a Maricopa County big lie.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
