The Arizona governor's race was too close to call a day after the polls closed. There is a possibility of a legal fight in the days and weeks to come.
Sources familiar with the matter say that the Lake campaign is prepared to take legal action over the election, potentially over the counting of ballots and the observation of that process. A member of Lake's legal team who asked not to be identified told Time that a lawsuit could be about the counting of the ballots and the monitoring of the counting. They wouldn't say if any specific suits were in the works.
There are roughly 275,000 mail ballots that were delivered in person on Election Day that will be counted on Thursday.
Nicole DeMont said from the beginning that the race was going to be close. Each and every Arizonan deserves to have their ballot counted and their voice heard, and in the days to come we will make sure that happens.
With 70% of the ballots counted, the secretary of state was leading Lake by a little more than 13,000 votes. The early mail-in votes gave Hobbs a commanding lead. Lake was able to close the gap with voters who cast their votes in person.
Roughly 225,000 Arizonans who voted by mail or dropped off their ballots on Election Day are not included. The Arizona election official who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the governor's race expected the votes to be split between Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
The Arizona Republicans are banking on the votes leaning towards Lake. Many Republicans stayed on the Absentee Voter rolls after 2020 but weren't comfortable mailing in their ballots or voting early. It is a legacy of former President Donald Trump bashing of voting by mail as being rife with fraud despite no evidence to support that claim, which he became especially vocal about two years ago, as many states expanded mail voting to facilitate elections during the Pandemic.
The Hobbs campaign told its supporters on Wednesday that it was embarking on a process to reach out to Arizonans who voted Absentee but who received a notice that their ballot wouldn't be processed until a problem was fixed.
The campaign is being represented by a Washington D.C. based firm headed by the Democratic Party's leading elections attorney, according to a campaign spokesman.
If you voted by mail, dropped off your ballot at a secure drop box, or cast your vote in person, your vote counts the same. Ballot curing is the process of contacting voters who may have had an issue with their ballots to make sure they are heard in this race.
In vote counting, this is a common process. It applies to voters who forget to include a signature on their ballot or who make a mistake like signing a spouse's ballot instead of their own. signature-verification technology is used to ensure signatures on a ballot match those on a voter's registration.
Monitors are allowed in the room for the cure process in Arizona. The Lake campaign is prepared to use lawyers to observe the process if they don't like what they see.
The Lake campaign spent $2 million to create and staff an election week "war room" to monitor the election and file lawsuits at the drop of the hat, according to a campaign official. The effort includes roughly 40 lawyers in a conference space in a hotel, as well as a team of roving lawyers dispatched to polling places and vote counting centers throughout the week.
Brady Smith, the Lake campaign's chief political strategist, told Time that this is the most robust Election Day and post- election operation that Arizona has ever seen.
Funding for the effort came from several sources, including the Lake campaign, the Republican National Committee, the Arizona Republican Party, and the National Republican Senate Committee.
The integrity of the 2020 election, including President Joe Biden's victory in Arizona, has been questioned by both Lake and Masters.
A hotline and a web portal were created by the War Room to allow voters to report suspicious activity. Lake used her social media accounts to promote the site before the election.
Smith says that attorneys are responding quickly to issues and concerns as they pop up.
The Lake and Masters campaigns joined the RNC in a lawsuit against the state of Arizona on Tuesday to extend voting times because of problems with 20% of the machines used in the morning. The problem was identified and fixed by noon. The judge said that the issue didn't result in voters not being able to cast a ballot and have their votes counted. The Arizona Democratic Party tried to extend voting times, but they were denied.
There are problems with some voting machines.
If the counts are close, the Lake campaign may ask for a hand count instead of using machines, according to a legal source.
The Arizona elections official doesn't dispute that machine counting and hand counting can result in different final vote counts, but he says the discrepancy is usually marginal. They said that machines were less prone to human error.
If the remaining ballots pan out, the Lake campaign may be less likely to go to court. Lake said Wednesday afternoon that it was "WOW". We are going to win a large amount of money. Don't be surprised.
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