Kari Lake: Trump-backed Republican ‘assembling lawyers’ as she refuses to concede governor race | US News

Kari Lake said she was gathering attorneys and gathering evidence about voters having difficulty voting, when she refused to acknowledge the race for governor of Arizona.

The Republican candidate said she was considering her next move after the race was called for her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs.

In a two-and-a-half-minute video, Ms. Lake gave no indication that she would give up.

Before the election, she declined to say whether she would concede if she lost.

“Rest assured, I’ve assembled the best and brightest legal team, and we’re working to fix the many mistakes that have happened over the past week,” Ms Lake said.

“I’m doing everything in my power to correct these mistakes.”

The staunch Trump supporter pointed to long lines at some polling places that were exacerbated by problems with ballot printers at about a third of vote centers in Maricopa County, the largest county Arizona’s best.

She claimed the issues disenfranchised voters who couldn’t wait at the polls, adding: “What happened to Arizonans on Election Day is unforgivable.”

County elections officials said all ballots have been counted and voters can go to any polling place in the county, many of which have little or no queues, with time. waiting to be posted online.

Elections officials found the problems were caused by printer settings that sometimes resulted in ballots being printed too light to be read by on-site tablers.

They said they used similar settings in the August primary and for pre-election testing, and there were no widespread issues.

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About 17,000 ballots are not scanned at precinct polling stations and are instead placed in a collection box to be counted by a more sophisticated machine at county elections headquarters, known as a “triple box”.

Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, blamed the state’s Republican chairman Kelli Ward and other prominent Republicans for causing delays and long lines because of them. tell their supporters not to use box three.

“This group, we’ve taken our responsibility for this,” Gates said Monday.

“But I’m not willing to accept responsibility for problems caused by others. And it’s clear to me that those lines are longer because leaders in a political party spread misinformation.”

Republicans asked a judge to extend time at the polls because of these issues, but the judge refused, saying they had produced no evidence that anyone had been arrested. deprived of the right to vote.

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Democrats overwhelmingly voted by mail ballots with in-person Election Day votes in favor of Republicans, because Ms. Lake and others in the party have claimed it. safer.

Ms. Lake has said little since multiple news organizations called for a race for Ms. Hobbs on Monday. Late Wednesday, she posted a video with clips from the campaign trail set to the Tom Petty song “I Won’t Back Down.”

Her video on Thursday said Ms Hobbs, now secretary of state, should have stepped down from any role in the election.

The secretary of state creates election procedures and certifies equipment, but her office does not count votes.