OPINION: Kari Lake and Mark Finchem are signalling that something stinky is afoot in Pinal County. It’s a great way to begin to build a case that they’ve been robbed, should the need arise on Aug. 3.
By Laurie Roberts | Arizona Republic
Ballots were mailed to every eligible voter in Maricopa County in early October for the all-mail election that concludes Nov. 2, 2021.
There’s a new conspiracy brewing in Arizona, it seems. A diabolical plot to steal the 2022 election in, of all places, Pinal County.
Naturally, Kari Lake, Mark Finchem and the rest of the Stop-the-Steal crowd, are all over it.
Lake has been hinting for months that the only way she could lose the Aug. 2 Republican governor’s primary is if the election is stolen.
“We have a movement. Our campaign is a movement,” she said, when asked during the June 30 Clean Elections debate whether she would accept the election results. “We’re going to show up in droves. They are going to have to cheat even harder to win it.”
Never mind, apparently, the fact that there also is a rather substantial “movement” underway to elect her opponent, Karrin Taylor Robson (who, by the way, has agreed to accept the results once the voters have spoken.)
Finchem has flat out said he won’t concede should he lose the secretary of state’s race.
“Ain’t gonna be no concession speech coming from this guy,’’ he told supporters, during a June 28 event in Chandler. “I’m going to demand a 100% hand count if there’s the slightest hint that there’s an impropriety.’’
Given that Finchem sees conspiracies behind every cactus, I’m guessing that means there’s a 100% chance he’ll scream “fraud” should he lose to one of his three opponents.
Which brings us to the sinister doings in Pinal County.