Arizona Election is Over Except for Maricopa County
I expect the issues in the Republican led Maricopa County will take a while to resolve as there will be an election recount. AG candidate Abraham Hamadeh will require answering. His wish for the state to declare him the winner before a recount will need answering too. Doubt it.
In Don’t Cry for Arizona Yet, We Are Getting There, I wrote about Maricopa County which is just north of where I live. Just a refresher:
Moving on . . . To the north of where I live is Maricopa County. It is the largest county in Arizona by population. It is one the most heavily populated counties in the nation. I am sure you are aware by now of the slowness in which Maricopa County is reporting the results of the national election. Candidate for Governor Kari Lake is jumping up and down demanding reasons why there is delayed election results.
One reason for this is the closeness of the Arizona races.
Just a bit of background to acquaint AB readers. Maricopa County, Arizona has a majority Republican Board of Supervisors. The person running the tabulation of the votes is also a Republican. Indeed, most all of the county’s leaders are Republican.
Kari, trump, and others can’t blame the Democrats for delays in the tabulation of the votes.
Next in Threating 2022 Midterm Election workers, I discussed the threats against election workers and the make of Maricopa County leaders.
“1,600 pages of documents obtained by Reuters through a public records request. All related to threats and harassments against election workers.”
Election workers in Arizona’s fiercely contested county of Maricopa faced more than 100 violent threats and intimidating communications. This was occurring during the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm Election. Most of the threats alleging election conspiracy theories were promoted by former President Donald trump and his lackies. After the election, we were watching Kari Lake stomp around yelling at Maricopa County officials.
What is strange about this? Well for one thing, Maricopa County has a majority Republican County Board of Supervisors. Four of the 5 supervisors are Republican. In response to Blake Master’s accusation and Kari Lake’s fits, Maricopa Republican Chairman and Supervisor Bill Gates had a lot to say about Kari Lake and the RNC’s accusations.
Last week, I talked about state and local propositions and the election again in Voting for politicians, unions, and propositions November 2022.
One election in particular was very close. Five hundred and ten votes now separate the two candidates . Mayes is still in the lead. This election result will be recounted. Before the recount can begin, Mayes has to be declared the winner,
Abraham Hamadeh is having none of that. He argues a handful of technical errors that occurring on Election Day led to a flawed vote count. I heard this multiple times and it was resolved Seventy of the 223 voting centers in Maricopa County experienced printer issues for a few hours that day. Election officials in yhis mostly Republican county gave voters the option to submit their ballots through a drop box to be tabulated later or vote at another precinct.
Abraham claims the Republican Maricopa County Defendants engaged (through their election boards) in cognizable ‘misconduct,’ and wrongfully excluded valid and legally sufficient votes from the canvass in the race for Arizona Attorney General.”
To be clear, the printer issues were fixed that afternoon, and a New York Times survey conducted that day found that most voters were still able to cast their ballots, albeit a few hours later than they’d intended. You can read the rest of Abraham Hamadeh here.; Arizona AG Candidate Denies 2022 Election Results With Trumped-Up Lawsuit (msn.com).
For all intents and purposes, it was a blow out with Republicans losing bigly in leadership. Not much changed in the state legislature. I suspect Mayes will probably win and take office after the dust settles. During the election, words like Republicans were lost. Election issues and party names were separate. Newscasters and Dems did not pickup on it. However, the Republican leadership in Maricopa County appeared to have the voting issue under control.
Yes they are Republican, but how many were elected to public office before Trump? Unless they have kissed the ring, that would make them RINO’s automatically.
It is only a matter of time before the Republicans running things in Maricopa are drummed out of the party. They let a Democrat win.
Jane:
I do not mind the passing of information. Four of 5 are Republicans and have been in office of some status a decade or more. This is readily available info which can be found on the site. The one Dem is Latino of which many are in the area. As you probably know, AZ is becoming a blue state. Just about every state office has been taken by Dems. The legislature is still majority Repub. I have no knowledge of why on the latter. In time . . .
The thrashing about and vocal trashing about by Lake and others is funny. Nothing was said by the news to identify the county as controlled by Repubs. Lake, others who have lost and the RNC are attacking their own people on stuff they helped bring about. These are not Dems they are attacking (including the RNC) and blaming. Yep, there were delays. It is the Repubs system. No apparent vote irregularities. Just operational issues.