What’s the point of upgrading the system if it doesn’t make it function faster or more smoothly? That’s what I think most people are thinking about this new machine system voting. A lot of people online are calling for a return to paper and Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake just joined the call!
Lake vowed that after she wins, that is just what she plans to do. Lake assured voters that she is 100% sure she will win. “The question is, how big will that win be? Can you believe this?” she said.
Lake says that the delay was caused by mail-in voters who don’t feel that can trust the postal system after what happened in 2020 carrying in their ballots on voting day.
“[Those] are people who brought their mail-in ballots to the polls on Election Day because they don’t trust the mail and they don’t trust the drop boxes,” she said.
“We’re only down by a few thousand votes right now. When those votes come in, I think we’re going to see a lot of liberal minds kind of blowing up.”
After another drop of a tranche of votes from that 650,000, Lake was asked who she would put the onus on for this delay and potential confusion.
Lake pointed to her opponent, Democrat Katie Hobbs – who as incumbent secretary of state is the statewide official in charge of overseeing election operations. She also criticized Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a fellow Republican as “incompetent.”
In remarks reported by Phoenix media, Richer defended Maricopa’s election operations, explaining that the 275,000 early ballots dwarfed the 170,000 early ballots the county received during the 2020 presidential election.
“This number is immense,” he reportedly said, adding the increased turnout for a midterm election restricted the amount of official tabulation reporting that could be made within the first 24 to 48 hours.
“Last night, we were down 15 points, and now we’re down [less than a point],” Lake later said. “When I started voting in 1988, you showed up on election day… and you knew who won the election before you went to bed.”
Lake said the 2000 election was the start of annual electoral chaos, when the Bush-Gore race became forever associated with paper-ballot “hanging chads” and the “Brooks Brothers Riot” demonstration at Miami canvassing headquarters that was associated with political figures like GOP consultant Roger Stone.
“I want all Democrats, Independents and Republicans to trust in the system. And when I win … this is going to be top of my agenda,” Lake said, calling on the return of machine-less voting and paper ballots.
Look, I get that it’s 2022 but if the old paper ballots worked better then what are we doing? Even back in the old punch card days, we knew by the end of the following day who the most-likely winners were. This just seems like madness to me.