OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Officials from Maricopa County, Arizona, have provided a major update after several voters experienced a technical issue at various polling places on Election Day.
Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates held a press conference late on Wednesday, where he provided an update on the situation, clarified reporting in the media, and apologized to the public.
“Apologized yesterday. I will do it again today. What happened yesterday we cannot have a repeat of. We are already looking very closely at what happened. Obviously, our team was able to come up with a fix yesterday for what happened, so that allowed those votes centers to get back online. But again, we are going to do a deep dive on this. This board will get to the bottom of exactly what happened, and we will do what needs to be done,” Gates said.
Gates said that a “lion’s share” of the roughly 250,000 in-person votes cast on Election Day had been officially counted and reported. However, he said about 17,000 ballots — or 7 percent — were held in drop boxes and had not been counted.
Gates also said he expects up to 99 percent of the election results to be made public by Friday, with several dumps of new data being released each night until then.
Gates rejected the idea that there was any criminal activity afoot or any other foul play, but acknowledged that “yesterday was not a perfect election.”
“Maricopa County, Arizona, Supervisor Bill Gates apologized after roughly 20% of their polling sites had problems with tabulation machines reading ballots just hours after Election Day polls opened. The Arizona county had explained that some machines had problems with their printers and were not producing dark enough ink on ballots,” Fox News reported.
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake spoke with reporters on Tuesday afternoon and she wasted little time setting the record straight after a reporter asked her about potentially being picked to be Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate.
“I’m going to do two terms. I’m going to be your worst frickin’ nightmare for 8 years, and we will reform the media as well. We are going to make you guys into journalists again. So, get ready. It’s going to be a fun 8 years.”
A reporter went on to ask Lake: “Just curious, your attorney had mentioned maybe a possible silver lining with the issues that you will be able to move about town and kind of shake hands and talk to some of the people in line. Could you elaborate on your plans later today.”
“We are going to encourage people to stay in line, we are going to vote and stay in line and the people of Arizona would walk over hot coals and they would walk over broken glass to vote today and I know that they can stand in line for a couple hours if they have to. I know they’ll stand in line for eight hours if they have to. And they will vote and my message to the people of Arizona is do not get out of line until you have cast your vote. Do not get out of line until you have cast your vote. Things are looking very good for us. They may be trying to slow a red tsunami but it’s coming, and we are going to take back Arizona and I know that people are out voting, take food, wear comfortable shoes, take some water and just stay in line, Arizona, and vote. Vote, vote, vote, we have to vote today,” Lake responded.
WATCH:
Kari Lake to reporter:
"I’m going to do two terms. I’m going to be your worst frickin' nightmare for 8 years, and we will reform the media as well. We are going to make you guys into journalists again. So, get ready. It’s going to be a fun 8 years."pic.twitter.com/UeaSoeOKoD
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2022
Over the weekend, Lake broke her silence after police responded to “suspicious” items that were mailed to her campaign headquarters over the weekend.
In response to questions from reporters, the former Phoenix-area newscaster said that some staffers were exposed to a white powdery substance before police and the FBI were summoned.
“I have been so busy campaigning. This happened. I was not in the office. One of our wonderful staffers, a couple of them, were actually exposed,” Lake said following a campaign event in Queen Creek, Fox News Digital reported. “And so far, they’re doing okay. We’re monitoring them, and we want to make sure that everything’s okay.”
She went on to say that initially, the substance was to be sent to an FBI lab in Quantico, Va., but was rerouted to a closer facility instead.
“So we’re going to find out what it was,” she said, adding that the incident over the weekend was not the first time that her campaign was targeted.
“But listen, we’re in dangerous times,” she continued. “This is not the first time we’ve been threatened.
“I’ve been threatened many times. Our tires have been slashed. We’ve had screws drilled into our tires so that our tires would blow out while we’re on the road,” Lake added. “We are living in dangerous times, and that’s why we need to elect somebody who’s strong and a fighter and not a coward. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I really don’t want to get too far ahead of it.”
The Phoenix Police Department previously told the outlet that officers responded to a “found property call at an office building.”
“When officers arrived, they learned there were suspicious items located inside the mail,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Phil Krynsky said. “Additional resources responded to collect the items and secure the area. There have been no reports of injury and the investigation remains active.”
“Yesterday, one of Kari’s staffers opened up an envelope that had a suspicious white powder in it and had a letter in there with a bunch of vulgarities and ranting and raving about Kari,” a source close to the campaign told the UK’s Daily Mail.
“The employee then noticed a second package that was exactly like the first one she had opened, and she reported it,” the source said.
The FBI, a hazmat team, and a bomb squad responded to the scene and the FBI took the substance.
