Blake Masters, the Trump-endorsed U.S. Senate nominee for Arizona, is calling for the state’s attorney general to investigate the poorly run election in Maricopa County after malfunctioning equipment disenfranchised potentially thousands of voters. Masters conceded to incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly on Tuesday after losing his race 46.5 percent to 51.4 percent.
“Every member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors should lose their job,” Masters wrote on Twitter Thursday evening. “If they had any honor, they would resign in disgrace. They all deserve to be recalled by the voters, and investigated by the AG (pray that @AbrahamHamadeh makes it in).”
Republican Abe Hamadeh was reportedly trailing his Democrat opponent Kris Mayes by only 55 votes Thursday night in the Attorney General race, which is set to trigger an automatic recount.
Masters scorched Maricopa County’s election officials, saying, “the best you can say is that they are grossly negligent.”
They knew Republican turnout would be heavy on election day. And they didn’t make sure the machines worked? 20-30% of them failed, mostly in R-leaning places? Merits dismissal and investigation for ill intent.
No normal person looks at what happened in Maricopa on election day, or since, and says “yeah, looks good, well-run.” It’s an absolute disgrace. We may never know how many thousands of voters were disenfranchised. And yes this would have made a difference in Abe and Kari’s races.
The best you can say is that they are grossly negligent. They knew Republican turnout would be heavy on election day. And they didn’t make sure the machines worked? 20-30% of them failed, mostly in R-leaning places? Merits dismissal and investigation for ill intent.
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) November 18, 2022
On Monday it was revealed that Maricopa County’s top election official Stephen Richer, launched a “pro Democracy” political action committee (PAC) in 2021 to stop GOP candidates who believe the 2020 election was stolen. Additionally, it was recently discovered that Richer, who publicly identifies as a Republican, donated to a group of far-left activists called “PatriotTakes” that fundraises through the Democrat PAC ActBlue.
PatriotTakes describes itself on Twitter as “dedicated researchers monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy.”
On it’s website, the group says: “We research, monitor and expose the far-right corners of the web to identify right-wing disinformation and dismantle extremist talking points. Dedicated researchers monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy.”
PatriotTakes doesn’t seem like the type of group most Republicans would support, but it gets worse.
The group also says it works hard “to hold GOP and QAnon traitors, insurrectionists and criminals accountable, but we need your help to ensure we can continue to do this vital work through the 2022 midterm elections.”
Richer donated $40.00 to that in July of 2022, according to data available on the Federal Elections Commission’s website.
Masters called on his followers to “support Abe as his race goes to recount, and to “collect every horror story” and send it send to gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s team.
In a video posted on social media Thursday, Lake said she is still in the fight, after the race was called for opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
“I am busy here collecting evidence and data,” Lake said. “Rest assured that I have assembled the best and brightest legal team, and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week. I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs. My resolve to fight for you is higher than ever,” she added.
Arizona, we are still in the fight. pic.twitter.com/ytaGvqG5J0
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 17, 2022
In Arizona, a recount is triggered “when the margin between two candidates or propositions is less than or equal to 0.5 percent of the total number of votes cast.”
In the governor’s race, the margin is 0.65%, in the favor of Democratic Katie Hobbs, who has declared victory over Republican Kari Lake.
The automatic process would begin after Dec. 5, the day the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office is required to certify the results and petitions a recount to the state’s Superior Court. A judge would then authorize a statewide recount for specific races.
Should the race for governor land within the 0.5 percent margin, Hobbs would be required to recuse herself from the proceedings for that race. Her assistant Allie Bones would then assume the secretary of state role for the recount.
Masters said everyone responsible for the botched election should be “thrown out.”
“We must demand better than third-world elections,” he wrote on Twitter. “Until we do, things will get worse before they get better.”
Caroline Wren, a senior advisor to Kari Lake, told Steve Bannon on the War Room Thursday that “nobody has faith in this. It’s a completely broken system.”
Wren said Lake is assembling a legal team to go through the election data, and the thousands of testimonials the campaign has received from voters claiming to have been disenfranchised. She added that the problem with collecting data, is that “a big place where that data lives is in the secretary of state’s office.”
“This is the same Secretary of State that’s our opponent who wouldn’t recuse herself. This is the same Secretary of State who is in charge of certifying this election. This is the same Secretary of State who botched the entire election she was supposed to oversee,” she pointed out.
.@CarolineWren "This is the same Secretary of State that's our opponent who wouldn't recuse herself. This is the same Secretary of State who is in charge of certifying this election. This is the same Secretary of State who botched the entire election she was supposed to oversee." pic.twitter.com/yQN7J1S65i
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) November 18, 2022
Wren also said that Kari’s team demanding to know why Maricopa County’s election equipment didn’t fail until Election Day, when people were voting for Republicans three to one.
“We start early voting on October 12. Why did 0 percent of the voting centers encounter tabulation problems during early voting when we know that the Democrats are heavily voting? Why did that number then jump up to 48 percent of voting centers having tabulation problems on Election Day?” she asked. “It’s either total incompetence or it’s malice.”
.@CarolineWren: "We start early voting on October 12. Why did 0% of the voting centers encounter tabulation problems during early voting when we know that the Democrats are heavily voting? Why did that number then jump up to 48% of voting centers… on Election Day?" pic.twitter.com/ba7L48rH2Q
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) November 18, 2022
I’m so sorry they did this to us, Arizona. We will not let them get away with disenfranchising our Vote.
If you experienced issues on Election Day, please submit them at https://t.co/16ZEKvDz0L pic.twitter.com/ab1ipDGcUg
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 18, 2022