2/2
‘Show me your work’
Wright said she’s willing to give the county the benefit of the doubt. But she saidno one from the county has yet responded to her inquiry or provided her any details about how the number of uncounted ballots suddenly increased by 14,666.
“Show me your work,’’ Wright said.
She now is seeking detailed numbers from the county breakdown of ballots waiting to be tabulated, broken down by categories including how many are waiting to be processed, how many are waiting for signature verification and how many need to be “cured.’’
That refers to situations where the signature on early ballot envelopes appears to not match other signatures the county recorder already has on file from that person. Arizona law gives five days — through Sunday, Nov. 10 this year — for individuals to contact the office and cure the ballots, verifying that they did, in fact, come from them.
“It’s really important in our election systems and processes that we have transparency and accountability and the numbers add up,’’ Wright said. “And that’s how you restore confidence and trust in our electoral system.’’
What it comes down to, she said, is getting “clear answers.’’
“If there’s a clear explanation that resolves the concern, I’ll check that out,’’ Wright said. “I hope that there’s a clear, innocent explanation so I can put this issue aside. People deserve answers.”
Lake’s status, history
Lake is trailing Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego in the race to be elected Arizona’s next senator.
Gallego was ahead Saturday by 33,898 votes out of more than 2.7 million ballots already tallied, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Separate reports showed there were still more than 588,000 ballots uncounted statewide. While the lion’s share is in Maricopa County at about 337,000, the most recent report still showed 120,907 uncounted in Pima County.
Those uncounted Pima ballots won’t sway the heavily Democratic county Lake’s way. The last report showed Gallego with about a 90,000-vote lead over Lake in Pima County.
Lake also is trailing in Maricopa County by about 60,000 votes.
But her campaign is counting on picking up enough votes in both counties which, combined with strong showings for her in many rural counties, could provide the margin of victory.
On top of that, Lake and her allies in the Republican Party are out looking for people they believed voted for her who are on the “cure’’ list to see if they can bolster her numbers by the Sunday deadline.
Lake has already spent two years in court challenging the final tally in the 2022 election when she lost the governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Last time, the focus was on Maricopa County.
One case only came to an end Thursday when the Arizona Supreme Court dismissed her final appeal. Lake also has other active litigation continuing over her 2022 loss.
https://tucson.com/news/local/government-politics/elections/pima-couny-clerical-error-reporting-ballot-count-fuels-kari-lake-mistrust/article_51a3af60-9eca-11ef-b68b-a341105413a8.html