Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake encouraged her supporters to either vote early by mail or, if they do vote on Election Day and run into problems, go to a liberal part of town instead to cast their ballot.
The 2022 gubernatorial candidate has argued in court that the approximately 60 percent of polling places (132 in all) that experienced voting machine malfunctions on Election Day that year were mostly in Republican areas of Maricopa County.
Lake ended up losing the race by less than one percent of the vote to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Despite long lines caused by voting machine issues like that seen in ruby red Anthem on the north side of Phoenix, Lake noted after the election she still pulled 75 percent of the Election Day vote countywide.
Here is the problem w/ what happened in Maricopa County on Election Day. This is Anthem, north of Phoenix at about 1:15 pm. Ruby red district of about 30K people. Only one polling location. Ballot tabulators not working in the morning. 2 hr wait to vote midday and still at 6 pm. pic.twitter.com/CY35yQWwq5
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) November 14, 2022
Speaking to a standing room only crowd Tuesday night in Black Canyon City not far from Anthem, Lake said, “Everybody here, if you get a mail-in ballot, I ask you to sit down and fill it out. Start out with President Trump and fill in that oval, then Kari Lake and go right down all Republicans.”
About 80 percent of Arizonans vote by mail-in ballot.
@KariLake encourages supporters Tuesday night north of Phoenix to get their mail-in ballots in early to help the ballot chasing effort: Fill in that oval for @realDonaldTrump, then Lake and right on down the line for the @GOP. pic.twitter.com/yWLD9po8nG
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) September 4, 2024
Does Lake’s advice sound good to you?
Yes: 97% (31 Votes)
No: 3% (1 Votes)
The candidate also acknowledged that many people prefer to vote on Election Day and said she would like to see it go back to one day voting with paper ballots, but until then, Republicans have to play on the field with the rules that are in place.
But if voters do chose to vote on Election Day and there are problems at their normal polling places, consider going to a liberal part of town, she argued, predicting they’d get in, no problem. Maricopa residents can cast their ballots at any polling location in the county.
“That’s how I had to vote in the ‘22 election. The two voting centers that I would normally vote in were in Republican areas. They had long lines that were hours long. So I drove downtown Phoenix to a liberal part of town and got right in,” Lake noted in a statement to The Western Journal.
Black Canyon City is Kari Country! 💪 pic.twitter.com/3ZVGgDeDB4
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) September 4, 2024
During a Q&A after her opening remarks, Lake addressed a recent Fox News poll conducted last month that showed her 15 percentage points down to Democrat Ruben Gallego, even as a CNN poll released Wednesday had Gallego’s lead within the 5 percent margin of error (47 to 44 percent), which is consistent with an Insider Advantage poll published last week.
@KariLake said Tuesday night: “This is a tie or margin of error race” based on 5 most recent polls she’s seen.
A CNN poll in fact came out Weds morning showing the race within the MOE, contrary to an outlier Fox poll from late last month. pic.twitter.com/sLb4q8sTlx
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) September 4, 2024
“We’re going to win this,” Lake said. “President Trump is hugely popular … because of what he’s doing for us. We are popular because people love our policies.”
“When you hear polls that don’t make sense, they don’t make sense because they’re garbage. I have five polls that came out within the last eight days saying this is a tie or margin of error election,” she added.
Lake then argued that Gallego and his allies would not be spending tens of millions in television ads if the race was not tight.
Nor would the conservative Club for Growth be spending $12 million in new television ad buys in support of her candidacy if their polling did not show a close contest.
Win It Back PAC, affiliated with Club for Growth, just dropped a new ad attacking Gallego for failing to support stronger border measures.
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“Why should we deploy you to the Senate, when you failed to protect us in Congress?” Vietnam veteran Robert Kiyosaki asked.
Disclosure: Floyd Brown, founder of The Western Journal, is serving on a volunteer basis as chairman of Kari Lake’s Senate campaign.