Maricopa Official Lambastes Kari Lake on election rebuke: ‘unacceptable’
Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo slammed Kari Lake for his criticism of the 2022 midterm elections in a clip that spread across social media Monday night.
Lake, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, fell short in Arizona’s gubernatorial contest this month, as Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs won a narrow victory in the ‘Split swing state.
After his loss, Lake alleged that problems with Election Day tabulation machines were robbing same-day voters, who typically skew Republicans, from Maricopa County, the state’s largest and home to Phoenix. However, Maricopa officials from both major political parties defended the election and voted to certify its results.
The board of oversight met Monday night to certify the county’s election, despite skepticism from some Republicans, including Trump, about the results. The certification followed hours of public comment, during which some Lake supporters doubted the integrity of the election. Lake posted excerpts of their comments on Twitter.
OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images
In an impassioned speech at the board meeting, Gallardo, a Democrat, called out Lake for pushing “one side of the story” by not also sharing election officials’ explanations of why there had problems at the polls.
“She’s a perfect example of Kari Lake not telling voters the truth,” Gallardo said. “She doesn’t. She wants to push one side of the story.”
Maricopa Superv is made with Kari Lake. It’s 🔥: “You look at Kari Lake’s Twitter feed, they uploaded 28 posts from people yelling at us. But once the public comment was done, that was it. That’s all they want the fans to know. They don’t. I want the voters to know the truth.” pic.twitter.com/EE1NO2BdH3
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 28, 2022
He continued, “When you have people throwing rocks at the system, but not wanting to tell voters the truth, that’s unconscionable. Shame on her.”
A video of his speech, in which he also defended the election as ‘safe, secure and accurate’, was posted by attorney Ron Filipkowski, a Republican Party critic, and has been viewed more than 100,000 times on Monday evening.
Lake shared more than 20 videos sharing Maricopa County residents speaking out against the 2022 election on Monday.
In one video, a resident said she was “disenfranchised” when she tried to vote in person and the tabulator didn’t accept her ballot. However, she said she received confirmation that her ballot had been counted, adding that others had not received the same confirmation.
Arizona election results: Cochise County delays certification
Maricopa isn’t the only Arizona county in midterm turmoil. Officials in Cochise County, in the southeast part of the state, voted 2-1 Monday to delay certifying its election results.
Cochise is one of the most conservative areas in Arizona, which means failure to certify the election could potentially backfire on Republicans. Specifically, it would have the potential to change the results in Arizona’s sixth congressional district, in which Republican Juan Ciscomani beat Democrat Kirsten Engel by just 6,000 votes.
Hobbs plans to take legal action against Cochise County if he does not certify his results, KPNX-TV reporter Brahm Resnik reported. Lake won the county by about 18 percentage points despite losing the state as a whole by less than one point.
Newsweek contacted Lake’s campaign for comment.
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