Kari Lake deems Arizona’s election process a ‘laughingstock’ 

Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Sunday called her state’s elections process a “laughingstock” as her race against Democrat Katie Hobbs has yet to be called five days after the election.

“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. And we need to get in there and restore faith in our elections,” Lake said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” 

“We can’t be the laughingstock of elections anymore here in Arizona. And, when I’m governor, I will not allow it. I just won’t.”

With 88 percent of votes counted as of Sunday afternoon, Hobbs is leading Lake by 1.5 percentage points — and Arizona officials have said the process of counting ballots will stretch into next week.

The Trump-backed Republican has called Arizona election workers “incompetent” and accused them of intentionally slowing down the process.

Many of those uncounted ballots are in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county. The head of elections in the county, Bill Gates, has called Lake’s claim that officials are “slow-rolling” the process “offensive.”

“It’s really sad to hear that we have the Republican nominee for governor here in Arizona who is talking like that,” he told CNN earlier this week.

“I understand that Kari Lake wants us to move quickly and a lot of people do, but you know what’s more important? That this is done accurately.”

Lake touts former President Trump’s fraud claims about the 2020 presidential elections and has sidestepped questions about whether she’d accept the results of her own race if she loses. 

Lake on Sunday likened the state’s preparations for Election Day to “showing up for the Super Bowl not ready.”

“It’s embarrassing. It’s wrong. And we need people who are competent running our elections. This incompetency or maladministration is outrageous. And I think the good thing is that more people are waking up to the fact that Arizona has real troubles when it comes to elections,” Lake said. 

“But I’m willing to wait until every vote is counted … I think every candidate should wait until every vote is counted,” she added.