Kari Lake: Election denier calls Arizona loss ‘unforgivable’ as she still refuses to concede race

Kari Lake traveled to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resident in Florida after her projected loss in the Arizona governor’s race.

She reportedly received a standing ovation at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing group formed by Trump allies and former members of his administration, according to The Washington Post.

The group’s event on Thursday aimed to “ensure polices are prepared and finalized for new sessions of Congress and the state house.”

Democratic candidate for Arizona governor Katie Hobbs remains the projected victor in the race, ahead by nearly 17,000 votes as remaining ballots are processed and counted, with nearly 100 per cent of counties reporting their results

Ms Hobbs leads by 16,934 votes, with 1,282,837 votes to Ms Lake’s 1,265,903 votes, according to figures from the secretary of state’s office as of 3pm ET on Thursday.

Arizona and Maricopa County in particular are once again at the centre of right-wing conspiracy theories and allegations of election malfeasance as ballots continue to be processed and counted in the battleground state.

Far-right activists like discredited filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza also are reviving allegations of so-called “mules” dropping off multiple absentee ballots at drop boxes, which is legal in Arizona.

Before Election Day, a federal judge even ordered an activist to revoke false claims about ballot drop boxes and to post on her social media account what the actual law states after her group prompted stakeouts that harassed and filmed voters dropping off their ballots.

Following an update from Maricopa County, Democratic candidate for attorney general Kris Mayes is leading Republican Abe Hamadeh by just 130 votes.

Ms Mayes has netted 1,249,949 votes to Mr Hamadeh’s 1,249,819 votes, as of 4.30pm ET, according to the secretary of state’s office.

That race is likely headed towards an automatic recount, which is triggered when the votes get within one half of one per cent.

Kari Lake has refused to concede in the race for Arizona governor and is intead assembling a legal team and launching a website to collect alleged evidence of voter suppression after her loss.

In a two-minute video posted on social media, the far-right candidate said she has “assembled the best and brightest legal team” to explore “every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week.”

Over the last several days, her campaign has posted videos of people claiming that they experienced long lines and issues with ballot processing machines – problems that election officials have admitted were affecting roughly one-third of voting centres in Maricopa County, the largest county in the state.

In many of the videos, people admitted that they were ultimately able to cast their ballot.

But election officials have stressed that voters had several options to make sure their ballots were cast and counted, including voting at other polling places in the county – wait times were posted online – or submitting paper ballots in a secure box.

Kari Lake’s allies and the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, however, told voters not to use them. Republicans nationwide also have cast doubt on the legitimacy of early voting, mail-in voting and using ballot drop boxes, insisting that people only vote in person on Election Day.

Bill Gates, the Republican chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, blamed Ms Ward and other GOP officials for spreading baseless claims and exacerbating delays.

“This team, we have accepted our responsibility in this,” he said on Monday. “But I’m not willing to accept responsibility for issues that were caused by others. And it is clear to me that those lines were longer because leaders in one political party were spreading misinformation.”

Kari Lake and her campaign and allies urged people to attend a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors hearing on Wednesday night, where a round of public comments accused the board of being a cancer, issued threats and warnings, and demanded resignations.

The verbal attacks against the board and chair Bill Gates largely focused on printing issues that required county voters to place their ballots in a secure Box 3 that was designed exactly for those scenarios.

But it has been the subject of widespread disinformation and allegations of malfeasance – including from the state Republican party’s own chair and other Lake allies – despite repeated attempts from elections officials to debunk them and ensure that their ballots counted.

Kari Lake traveled to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resident in Florida after her projected loss in the Arizona governor’s race.

She reportedly received a standing ovation at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing group formed by Trump allies and former members of his administration, according to The Washington Post.

The group’s event on Thursday aimed to “ensure polices are prepared and finalized for new sessions of Congress and the state house.”

Under Kelli Ward’s leadership of the Arizona GOP, 2022 midterm elections will be the first in nearly 50 years that Republicans have lost a majority of statewide races.

Karrin Taylor Robson, a former member of the Arizona Board of Regents, called for Ms Ward’s resignation.

“Kelli Ward’s leadership of the Republican Party has been an unmitigated disaster,” she wrote in a damning letter on Tuesday.

“For the good of the party she claims to love, and for the future of the state that we all cherish, Kelli Ward must do the right thing,” she added. “Kelli Ward must resign as the Arizona Republican Party Chairman.”

Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward is likely to have her phone records in the hands of the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol.

She was among so-called “alternate electors” in a scheme to falsely declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election. The plot relied on a bogus legal theory involving a slate of fraudulent certificates from key states that falsely asserted Mr Trump’s electoral college votes.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court gave the committee the greenlight to access those records.

Republican officials in Arizona are demanding that Ms Ward resign after the party lost races for governor, attorney general and US Senate.

Secretaries of state – both Democrats and Republicans – were critical in 2020 elections to stand up against Donald Trump and his allies from attempts to reject or overturn the results. Those officials certified votes, protected election workers and volunteers from harassment and abuse, and, in at least one case, rebuffed a direct surbversive attempt – recorded on tape – from Mr Trump himself.

Georgia’s Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger gained a national profile in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when then-president Trump called him to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. He refused.

“We’re going to stand for the rule of law,” he told reporters in the briefing on 15 November. “They’re gonna stand for the Constitution. And so that’s where we are right now. And we continue to press on to make sure we have honest, fair elections.”