Arizona Voters Supporting Kari Lake Have Been Disenfranchised
This article is an opinion piece from Bill Lockwood. Catch American Liberty with Bill Lockwood weekly at 11 a.m. Saturdays on NewsTalk 1290.
For all the juvenile crying from the left about people being “disenfranchised” in our republic for simply having to show an I.D. card at a voting booth, it seems that certified American citizens in several states have actually suffered disenfranchisement. This is what seems to have particularly occurred to supporters of Republican Kari Lake in Arizona, as Democrat Katie Hobbs has been announced as the winner in the governor’s race.
To be clear, if the integrity of the election process is compromised or lost, then we are not living in a free country. It is as simple as that. As the Texas Attorney General’s office put it: “Secure elections are the cornerstone of a thriving republic.”
And it is weak reasoning to resign ourselves to the position that “we will get ‘em next time” when there is evidence that the security of the past election was compromised, as it appears in Maricopa County, Arizona.
In spite of the fact that the MSM, inclusive of The Washington Post, NPR, U.S. News & World Report, has hurried to squash all dissenting voices and brand them as “election deniers,” approximately 30% of the 223 voting centers in Arizona’s Maricopa County were malfunctioning on voting day.
Was this coincidence? During her campaign Kari Lake had had legitimate questions about massive “mail-in balloting” and had openly encouraged her supporters to vote in person on November 8. It was therefore primarily Kari Lake supporters who were facing this crisis.
According to Cronkite News, Tucker Carlson is wrong to suggest that people were “not able to vote” in Maricopa County. But the fact is this is exactly what occurred on election day. Voters on the ground tell of the exceedingly long lines at the voting centers, only to be informed at the front of the line that the machines were not working, but they could put their ballots in “Box 3” which would be carried downtown later.
Added to the obvious voting disasters in the Phoenix area is the fact that Katie Hobbs, Kari Lake’s opponent in the governor’s race, is the acting Secretary of State in Arizona, whose office actually oversees the election. This means that Kari Lake voters were putting their ballots into the general oversight of Hobbs for counting after being “carried downtown.”
Already distrustful of this fiasco, many voters traveled to alternate voting sights only to be informed that they had “already voted.” Having stood in line for hours because of this seemingly planned malfeasance, many Arizonans were understandably angry. It is not out of place to ask, "How is any of this different than demanding a poll tax at the voting booth?" This is disenfranchisement.
Nothing about the election process in Maricopa County inspires confidence in the voter. It is disingenuous for Cronkite News to aver that though “there were reports of frustrated and irritated voters, but no accounts that anyone who wanted to vote couldn’t.”
No, voters were never technically denied the “right to vote” — but the Maricopa election system made it so troublesome, primarily for Kari Lake supporters, that it overturns the accepted norms of allowing everyone to vote.
No Voter Was Turned Away
Kgun9 News out of Tucson quotes county Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Gates to say that the problem with the machines were fixed by 2 p.m. Tuesday at 17 centers and that work was underway in the rest. “Gates said that no voter was turned away.”
Once more, it may be the case that no voter was “turned away” — but that does not answer the real problem — the eroding of certainty in the election system which caused many voters to travel to alternate locations to begin with, only to be confronted by a gauntlet of more detours.
Some point out that Bill Gates is a Republican. Why would he and the election board cause such a mess for a Republican candidate? The answer is simple, and perhaps gets to the heart of the entire conflict in America. Being a Republican is not assuring since there are so many Liz Cheney-type turncoat-Republicans or Neo-Cons, who would just as soon vote for a socialist than an Arizona-first constitutionalist like Kari Lake. So spoke Liz Cheney herself.
Kari Lake said it best during the campaign:
I consider someone’s vote their voice. I think of it as a sacred vote. And it’s being trampled the way we run our elections in Arizona. I have been sounding the alarm for two years. Nothing got done. Very little got done last legislative session.
The election process in Arizona is indeed a “laughingstock.”
But it is more serious than a laughing matter. It reeks of fraud.
Illustrative of this is the fact that the incumbent Treasurer for the State of Arizona, who is a Republican, somehow won 125,000 or so more votes than Kari Lake. Nobody knows his name and there is certainly no excitement about his campaign for re-election, yet there are over 125,000 more votes cast for him that for Kari Lake?
Arizona has a mandatory recount if the election is within .5%. Currently, Kari Lake is .6% with about 14,000 more votes to count. The state election board and MSM must believe the Arizona voters and conservatives generally are so stupid. I predict the election board will keep it so that Kari Lake will lose, and with just few enough votes so as not to trigger an automatic recount.
What is needed is a complete re-do in Arizona. There are so many questions about the “glitches” in the system that, instead of settling election-integrity doubts, voter confidence — for those who pay attention — is eroded completely. Call me an “election denier,” if you will, but there are plenty of reasons to question the election of Katie Hobbs.
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