Photo by Jim Small || Arizona Mirror
By Caitlin Sievers || Arizona Mirror
Kari Lake might get a chance next week to inspect a small number of ballots cast in Maricopa County in the 2022 midterm election, a judge ordered Friday.
And yet, Lake lost 315 precincts that voted for Doug Ducey in 2018, when he easily secured reelection over David Garcia. Between Maricopa and Pima counties, where some 80% of Arizona voters live, 295 precincts flipped from R to D in the governor’s race.
At the same time, Kimberly Yee secured reelection as treasurer by more than 280,000 votes, an 11 percentage point margin over her Democratic opponent. And Republicans picked up competitive congressional seats in Phoenix and Tucson.
Other election litigation:
Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County: Kari Lake’s election challenge should be swiftly dismissed
Hobbs: Hamadeh’s lawsuit lacks evidence and facts, should be rejected
Finchem response to motion to dismiss rife with errors, evidence-free theories
Mayes’ attorney slams Hamadeh’s election challenge as speculation, says it should be dismissed
You don’t have to crunch the data too hard to understand that Lake’s loss wasn’t because of fraud or the hacking of machines, as she desperately wants people to believe. It’s because her message about pervasive election fraud and fealty to Trump — also the central message of the Masters, Finchem and Hamadeh campaigns — drove Republican and conservative-leaning independents away from her by the thousands.
[RELATED]It’s a massive loss, and it’s strictly due to campaign malpractice. The Republicans should have swept.– Tyler Montague
By contrast, Yee didn’t cozy up to Trump — or to Lake, Masters, Finchem and Hamadeh, for that matter. Neither did U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, who narrowly won reelection, or Juan Ciscomani, who was elected to Congress in a tight race in Tucson.
One look at the map of the precincts in Maricopa County shows clearly what happened in Lake’s race: The ones that flipped are primarily in north Phoenix and Chandler, two areas that have historically been Republican strongholds but are increasingly becoming purple.
