Arizona’s gubernatorial race is headed for a photo finish. We dissect what you need to know about that race as it trudges on
Unless you live under a rock, in a cave, or on some deserted island, you’ve probably heard about all of the election issues that the state of Arizona has fought through since Tuesday. The most prevalent, of course, was the systematic dysfunction of up to 20% of the state’s voting machines within Maricopa, the state’s most populous county which encompasses Phoenix and several of its outlying suburbs.
As a result of these problems, State Republican officials immediately filed to have voting hours in Maricopa extended to make sure that the people, many of which had been waiting in line for several hours as a result of the malfunctions, were given ample time to cast their votes.
However, according to Time, that allocation still might not be enough to keep this race from being decided by the courts. We agree.
Not only are these types of inconsistencies immediately suspect in today’s polarized political landscape, but to complicate matters in the Arizona race, Katie Hobbs, the current gubernatorial candidate leading in the count, also happens to be Arizona’s sitting Secretary of State – the person in charge of overseeing all election within the state.
While there is an ongoing debate as to whether sitting SOSs should be forced to recuse themselves when running for higher office within the state whose elections they lead, that issue only becomes more pronounced and potentially wretched when issues like these develop under their watch and while their name is on the ballot – particularly when they are winning.
If you’ll remember, four years ago, in the state of Georgia, when then-Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp was running to be governor against Democrat Stacey Abrams in the first of their two matchups, Abrams set about all types of challenges of unfairness since, as Secretary of State, he was the reigning master of all elections within the state.
In that race, to help quash any appearance of impropriety, Kemp resigned as Secretary of State as the count dragged on. Despite that resignation, Abrams still took the issue to court in a lawsuit that was only just recently finally resolved in September of this year, some 4 full years after its filing. The case, which you can read here, was ultimately decided in favor of Brian Kemp.
More than a few officials in Arizona, as well as the Lake campaign itself, believes that Hobbs should do the same, though, at the time of this writing, despite several days of counting and all of the issues that occurred on election day, Hobbs remains the top election official in the state, prompting more than a few pundits, lawyers, and media sources, to believe this race will end up being resolved in a courtroom, particularly if the initial vote count shows Lake to have lost by a very close margin.
As always, The Veracity Report will keep you up to date on all of the election goings-on and breaking election results, as they happen.
Veracity Editor's Note:
This unbiased, non-satirical, fully attributed article was thoroughly researched by our team of fact-checkers and found to be accurate. The sources relied upon for the factual basis of this article were: Time, MSNBC, The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office website, The Associated Press, Reuters, and veracityreport.org.
More information on this and all our stories are available on our network website veracityreport.org.
This article was compiled and written by Chief Political Correspondent, Kurt Dillon – Because the Truth Matters!
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