Lake Campaign Produces Map Illustrating How Voting Machines Malfunctioned Primarily in GOP Areas
GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake showed a map at her “Save Arizona Rally” in Scottsdale Sunday night, which illustrated how most of the polling locations impacted by voting machine problems on Election Day were in strongly Republican areas of Maricopa County.
Lake’s election challenge of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ narrow win in November goes before the Arizona Court of Appeals Wednesday.
Lake stated that a Republican “heat map” was reportedly hanging at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) on Election Day.
Her campaign tweeted an image of that map Monday overlaid with the 132 polling locations her campaign said experienced ballot printer issues on Nov. 8, that prevented tabulators from being able to be read the ballots.
The map showed the vast number of malfunctioning polling locations being in Republican areas of the county.
?Breaking?
Maricopa County Tabulation & Election Center had a “heat map” in their central count showing “Republican Voter Dot Density.
Our team compared it with the locations where tabulator failures occurred on Election Day
This was a targeted attack on Republican voters pic.twitter.com/mB0JE8a7e4
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 30, 2023
Lake noted that 75 percent of voters on Election Day chose her.
“Now, I’m starting to figure out why they needed that heat map. Isn’t that something? I’m sure it’s just a coincidence,” she said.
[firefly_poll]
On the morning of Election Day, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Bill Gates, with Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer by his side, said “about 20 percent” of 223 polling locations were experiencing ballot tabulator problems.
The county later reported nearly one-third of the polling sites, 70 in all, had the issue.
An analysis by Rachel Alexander with the Arizona Sun Times in November found of these 70 locations, 59 were in heavily Republican areas, two were in Republican-leaning areas, while only nine were Democratic-learning or solidly Democratic parts of the county.
At Lake’s election challenge trial last month, Republican National Committee lawyer Mark Sonnenklar testified that his team of roving attorneys on Election Day found the ballot printer problems actually occurred at 132 locations, or 59 percent in all.
It was later determined that the ballot printers at these locations were configured incorrectly, so the tabulators could not read the ballots.
This same scene played out tens of thousands of times all across Maricopa County. How many voters were disenfranchised or simply ran out of time? If the majority of ED voters were Democrats, this would be the number 1 news story in America still today. Total joke pic.twitter.com/noY1RRQv0Q
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 14, 2022
Cybersecurity expert Clay Parikh testified at Lake’s trial that the configuration error could not have been made by accident.
“We proved in our court case [Maricopa County officials] intentionally printed the wrong image on the ballot,” Lake said Sunday night.
She explained the image was supposed to be configured for a 20-inch ballot.
“Richer and Gates and their crew printed a 19-inch image [on a 20-inch ballot], the wrong image on the ballots, so that the tabulators would jam all day long. That’s exactly what happened,” Lake said.
.@Stephen_Richer, & @billgatesaz, and their crew printed a 19-in image, the wrong image on the ballots, so that the tabulators would jam all day long. That’s exactly what happened.”https://t.co/V1GZ2Wqzlo pic.twitter.com/yZ60QbZ4kV
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 30, 2023
“These two men have the gall to say ‘that was just a hiccup,'” she added. “You waited for hours in line and that was a hiccup. You had to go to three or four vote locations and that was a hiccup.”
“I’m sorry that’s just not a hiccup,” Lake said.
Hours-long lines fueled by ballot printer problems occurred throughout Maricopa County.
This was the scene in ruby red Anthem on the north side of Phoenix.
Here is the problem w/ what happened in Maricopa County on Election Day. This is Anthem, north of Phoenix at about 1:15 pm. Ruby red district of about 30K people. Only one polling location. Ballot tabulators not working in the morning. 2 hr wait to vote midday and still at 6 pm. pic.twitter.com/CY35yQWwq5
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) November 14, 2022
Lake recounted that she chose not to vote at her regular polling location on Election Day because of the tabulator problem, but asked her campaign staff to “find the most Democrat voting center in the most Democrat part of town.”
“No line. No wait. They said the machines were working fine,” the candidate reported was her experience at the polling location they chose.
Last month, a trial court judge upheld in Hobbs’ win, finding that Lake’s legal team did not provide “clear and convincing” evidence of intentional misconduct by Maricopa County officials to impact the result of the race.
Lake argues in her appeal that the judge employed the wrong standard, saying, based on court precedent, the misconduct that invalidates an election can be much broader than intentional action taken in favor of a particular candidate.
Lake’s legal team is seeking a new election in Maricopa County.
“We have the strongest election lawsuit of our lifetime in the court of appeals right now,” Lake said Sunday. “We are going to win this legal battle.”
