Maricopa County Superintendent Steve Gallardo criticized Kari Lake for his criticism of the 2022 midterm elections, posting a clip that went viral on social media Monday night.
Lake, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, fell short in this month’s Arizona gubernatorial race, with Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs scoring a narrow victory in a divided battleground state.
Following her loss, Lake argued that problems with election day tallying machines disenfranchised same-day voters in Maricopa County, the state’s largest and home to Phoenix. But Maricopa officials from both major parties defended the election and voted to prove the outcome.
The oversight board met Monday night to certify the county’s election, even though some Republicans, including Trump, were skeptical about the outcome. Comments followed, in which some Lake supporters questioned the integrity of the election. Lake posted a clip of the comment on her Twitter.
In an impassioned speech to the board, the Democrat Gallardo accused Lake of pushing “one side of the story” without even sharing the election official’s explanation of why there were some problems with the vote. bottom.
“A perfect example of Kari Lake not wanting to tell voters the truth,” Gallardo said. “She doesn’t. She wants to push one side of the story.”
He continued:
A video of his speech, in which he defended the election as “safe, secure and accurate,” was posted by Republican critic Ron Philipkowski and has been viewed more than 100,000 times as of Monday night. rice field.
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Lake shared more than 20 videos on Monday sharing Maricopa County residents opposing the 2022 election.
In one video, a resident said she was “disenfranchised” when she tried to vote in person, but the tallyers didn’t accept her vote. He said he had received confirmation, adding that others had not received the same confirmation.
Arizona Election Results: Cochise County Delays Verification
Maricopa isn’t the only Arizona County in turmoil in the midterm elections. Officials in Cochise County, in the southeastern part of the state, said he voted 2-1 on Monday, delaying certification of the election results.
Cochise is one of Arizona’s most conservative neighborhoods, which means that failure to prove an election could backfire for Republicans. Specifically, it could change the outcome of Arizona’s 6th congressional district, where Republican Juan Ciscomani defeated Democrat Kirsten Engel by just 6,000 votes.
KPNX-TV journalist Brahm Resnik reported that Hobbs plans to file a lawsuit against Cochise County if he does not prove the results. Lake won the county by about 18 percentage points, even though statewide he trailed by less than a point.
Newsweek We reached out to Lake’s campaign for comment.
