Lake refuses to concede in Arizona governor’s race she lost

PHOENIX (AP) — Refusing to concede, Kari Lake, the defeated Republican candidate for Arizona governor, said Thursday she is assembling lawyers and collecting evidence of voters having trouble casting ballots on Election Day as she considers her next move.

Lake did not mention giving up in her longest public comments since losing the election in a video that lasted 2 1/2 minutes. She had previously refused to admit that she would concede if the race was lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs before the election.

“Rest assured I have assembled the best and brightest legal team, and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week,” Lake said. “I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs.”

She pointed out the long lines at certain polling places, which were made worse by problems with the ballot printers at approximately a third the Maricopa County voting centers. Maricopa County is the largest county within the state. She said the problems disenfranchised voters who couldn’t wait at the polls.

“What happened to Arizonans on Election Day is unforgivable,” she said.

County election officials stated that all ballots were counted, and that voters could visit any polling location in the county. Some of these locations had very few lines, while others had long wait times.

The problem was traced to a printer setting that sometimes caused ballots to be printed too slowly for on-site tabulators. They stated that the settings were the same for the August primary and pre-election testing. There were no widespread issues.

About 17,000 ballots were not scanned at precinct-based vote counters and were instead placed in a collection box to be counted by more sophisticated machines at the county’s election headquarters. The collection box has come to be known as “box three.”

Bill Gates, Republican Chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has blamed Kelli Ward, the state GOP chair, and other prominent Republicans for creating delays and long lines. They told their supporters to not use box three.

“This team, we have accepted our responsibility in this,” Gates said Monday. “But I’m not willing to accept responsibility for issues that were caused by others. And it is clear to me that those lines were longer because leaders in one political party were spreading misinformation.”

Republicans asked for a judge’s extension of hours at polling locations because of these issues. Judge declined to extend the hours at polling places because they did not present any evidence that anyone was being disenfranchised.

Mail-in ballots were the preferred method of voting for Democrats. Votes cast in person on Election Day favor the GOP due to Lake and other prominent Republicans claiming it was safer, which election experts disagree with.

Lake hasn’t spoken much since Monday’s race for Hobbs was called by The Associated Press, and other news outlets. Late Wednesday, she posted video with clips from the campaign trail set to the lyrics, “I won’t back down.”

She said Thursday that Hobbs (current secretary of state) should have removed herself from any role during the election. The secretary of state creates election procedures and certifies equipment, but her office does not count ballots, a task that is done by the state’s 15 counties.

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