The only fair remedy to address the fiasco that occurred in Maricopa County on Election Day is a redo.
There is no doubt the candidates most impacted by the 70 polling locations experiencing inordinately long lines due, in part, to vote tabulating machines malfunctioning were Republicans like Kari Lake and attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh.
Both trail their Democratic opponents by less than one percent of the vote.
As of this writing, Lake is about 18,000 votes behind Democrat Katie Hobbs with votes still incoming, though The Associated Press and other major media outlets have called the race for Hobbs.
Hamadeh is much closer, with only approximately 2,200 votes separating him from Democrat Kris Mayes.
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Over 2.5 million ballots have been cast statewide in the contest, and more than 1.5 million came out of Maricopa County, which encompasses the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Republican voters showed up heavily on Election Day.
Hamadeh tweeted on Saturday, “REMEMBER: 72%+ of the votes on Election Day in person were Republican. When you have 30% of the tabulating machines failing, causing people to leave the lines and give up. This is voter suppression targeting a political party.”
REMEMBER: 72%+ of the votes on Election Day in person were Republican.
When you have 30% of the tabulating machines failing, causing people to leave the lines and give up.
This is voter suppression targeting a political party.
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) November 12, 2022
Do you think Maricopa County should redo the election?
Yes: 99% (1118 Votes)
No: 1% (7 Votes)
Despite all the Election Day problems, Lake was able to close Hobbs’ lead from double-digits (about 183,000 votes), based on her advantage in the early voting tallies, to less than a percent (about 12,000 votes) by the Wednesday following the election, thanks to Election Day votes.
In her August primary, Lake took the lead over establishment Republican pick, Karrin Taylor Robson the day after the election because of Election Day totals. Robson, like Hobbs, had leapt out to a double-digit lead on election night due to early voting and mail-in ballots.
Unlike the primary race, Lake never had to lead against Hobbs and arguably that was due to vote tabulator machine problems across Maricopa County on Election Day.
This same scene played out tens of thousands of times all across Maricopa County. How many voters were disenfranchised or simply ran out of time? If the majority of ED voters were Democrats, this would be the number 1 news story in America still today. Total joke pic.twitter.com/noY1RRQv0Q
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 14, 2022
The approximately 18,000 votes separating Lake and Hobbs breaks down to about 250 people being dissuaded from voting per the 70 ill-function polling stations.
For Hamadeh, about 30 people per location would make the difference.
It is entirely conceivable that hundreds of people either left the line or didn’t show up as they heard about the hours-long lines whether through the news or family or friends texting them, etc.
Here is what happened on Election Day in ruby red Anthem, north of Phoenix.
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
The same was true throughout the county.
This is Chandler in southeast Maricopa.
I was outside a polling location in SE Chandler for 3 hours Tues morning as a campaign supporter; we were told that polling locations in N Gilbert were down, so those voters were being sent to ours…wonder how many never voted at all, on leaving Gilbert?https://t.co/bNmK9rkTPa
— Jennifer Alvey (@Jennife97135834) November 14, 2022
And here’s a picture from a polling location in Scottsdale, east of Phoenix.
The lines in Maricopa are insane this morning. This is one poll in Scottsdale at 9am. Keep pushing. Overwhelm the system. pic.twitter.com/XybEL91lP3
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 8, 2022
The Western Journal received over 20 exclusive videos featuring Arizona voters explaining how difficult it was for them to cast their ballots. One voter had to wait in line for seven hours.
Lake suggested on Election Day the places most impacted by malfunctioning machines and long lines seemed to be Republican strongholds.
After having his ballot rejected numerous times, “he looked at the line, shook his head and then left.”
How many times did this happen in Arizona on Election Day?
This is #AZVoterSupression. pic.twitter.com/TReP9Fe0hZ
— Olivia Brown🇺🇸 (@oliviaintheusa) November 15, 2022
The Washington Post later reported there were heavily Democratic polling locations impacted too, but that of course misses the point that Republicans were voting in far greater numbers on Election Day than Democrats.
The results of last Tuesday’s elections are irreparably tainted due to interference on the field of play, if you will.
The only fair response is a redo of Maricopa County.
