Katie Hobbs widens lead in Arizona governor race as Republican doubts results

Maricopa County in Arizona is at the epicentre of election misinformation Wednesday after problems with voter tabulation machines spawned conspiracy theories about vote rigging, the Associated Press writes.

Normal voting practices such as poll worker initialing ballots before they were given to voters are being seized on as evidence of malfeasance.

Kate Starbird, University of Washington professor and leading misinformation expert, told the AP that it was understandable that people go on social media to complain about long election lines or glitchy voting machines.

“The problem is when their audiences pick that up with this assumed voter fraud implication,” she said. “It gets picked up and reframed as voter fraud as it spreads.”

Kari Lake has been been spreading doubt about the election integrity, calling officials “incompetent” and promising to reform voting practices in an interview on Wednesday.

Republican leaders and allies are urging former president Donald Trump to delay his 2024 presidential announcement to “look at realities on the ground” amid setbacks for the GOP in midterm elections.

With counting still underway after the 2022 midterms, Joe Biden appeared to have beaten the historical odds by diminishing the Democratic party’s losses while Republicans argued with each other over their surprisingly weak performance.

Mr Trump had been expected to declare his candidacy on 15 November.

The Independent’s Shweta Sharma has more.

Kari Lake sowed doubt on election integrity throughout her campaign, and refused to confirm she would accept the results of the governor’s race.

And with results on a knife-edge with 70 per cent of the votes counted, her allies are already eyeing a court battle.

An anonymous member of Ms Lake’s team told Time magazine that a lawsuit could focus on “the counting of the ballots and the monitoring of the counting.”

Katie Hobbs’ campaign manager told Time in a statement that they always knew the race would be tight.

“Each and every Arizonan deserves to have their ballot counted and their voice heard, and in the days to come we will continue to watch these results closely to make sure that happens.”

Same day vote tallies are likely to be released some time on Thursday.

Katie Hobbs has a slight lead against Republican former news anchor Kari Lake in Arizona’s race for governor on Thursday, as officials in Maricopa County addressed issues with counting ballots.

Arizona has tabulated 1.9 million votes, but 619,012 ballots remain uncounted.

With 70 per cent of the vote tallied, Ms Hobbs has a lead of around 12,000 votes.

Maricopa County officials have promised to investigate how polling locations ran out of paper on election day.

Eric Garcia has the story.

Katie Hobbs has urged her supporters to “stand firm” as votes continue to be counted in Maricopa County.

In marked contrast to her opponent Kari Lake, Ms Hobbs expressed confidence in election officials in a tweet on Wednesday night.

“Hang tight Arizona — and let’s let our local election officials do their jobs, without fear or interference.”

Writing for Independent VoicesAhmed Baba says that the Republican repudiation of Donald Trump is a clear sign that his control over the party is waning.

“In an interview with NewsnationTrump gave a classic deflection that was almost laughable in its bare-facedness: “If they win, I should get all the credit; if they lose, I should not be blamed at all.”

“Well, Republicans are handing him all of the blame, and on his most beloved network.”

Kari Lake has poured scorn on election officials as votes continue to be counted for the Arizona governor’s race in Maricopa County.

“It’s really odd that Maricopa County election officials who are the most incompetent in the country are dragging their feet in delivering what everybody wants to know,” she told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night.

Ms Lake claimed that of the 650,000 votes yet to be counted, most are Republicans who voted on election day.

“We know this big group of voters are going to swing very heavily our way and we believe we will be victorious at the end of the day.”

Ms Lake went on to describe the election officials as “imbeciles”.

She has falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and said she would not accept the results of the governor’s race if she lost.

But the “red tsunami” that many blustering conservative commentators had confidently forecast was about to level Washington DC has most certainly not materialised.

Read on for a detailed explainer on where the races stand this morning.

Kari Lake has now said she is “100% certain” she will win the race for governor of Arizona.

“I feel 100% certain I’m going to win,” she told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night.

“We’re only down by a few thousand votes right now, when those votes come in we’re gonna see a lot of liberal minds blowing up.”

Her confidence comes as she continues to trail behind Democrat Katie Hobbs and as around 30 per cent of votes are still left to count in the state.

In his first remarks since the midterms, Joe Biden praised Democrats’ performance in House races and how the party held many Senate races.

“While the press and the pundits are predicting a ‘giant red wave,’ it didn’t happen,” he told reporters.

“And I know you were somewhat miffed by my obssessive optimism but I felt good during the whole process.”