The Big Lie
In campaigning, Kari Lake modeled herself on Donald Trump. In losing, she’s doing so too.
Many of the Republican candidates who staked their campaigns this midterm year on questioning the integrity of U.S. elections have lost and conceded — a low bar for democratic norms but one that political observers weren’t certain would be cleared. But Kari Lake, one of the most prominent election deniers of the cycle, has so […]
MAGA fails in Arizona for the third straight election
The historically good results for Arizona Democrats at the polls this month are the third cycle in a row that MAGA has faltered at the ballot box, and political observers say it should be a clarion call to Republicans that Trumpism is a loser in the Grand Canyon State. But operatives in both parties say […]
U.S. Supreme Court denies attempt by Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward to block Jan. 6 panel subpoena
The U.S. Supreme Court sided Monday with the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, denying a request from Arizona Republican Chairwoman Kelli Ward and her husband to block the panel from obtaining their cellphone records. The court’s two-paragraph order ends Kelli and Michael Ward’s federal suit to block the […]
Tuesday’s election was a vote for democracy and a rebuke of Republican liars
In the pre-dawn hours after Tuesday’s midterm elections, former Republican congressman-turned-MSNBC pundit Carlos Curbelo nailed it. “We called them election deniers. They’re all just liars,” he said. It couldn’t be better said. The people who’ve continued to insist that former President Donald J. Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election are just that, liars. […]
The Department of Justice will be monitoring polling places in Arizona
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it will be sending personnel to monitor the polls in five counties in Arizona and 23 other states as voter intimidation complaints reach double digits in the state. The DOJ Civil Rights Division will monitor polling locations in Maricopa, Navajo, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties on Election […]
New poll is a roadmap to Republican grievance in 2022
A new poll provides an eye-opening glimpse into the values and motivations of the modern Republican Party, and the cultural and political forces that will drive the party faithful to the polls on Nov. 8. The latest American Values poll by the Public Religion Research Institute also zooms in on the views of white evangelical Protestants who backed former President […]
A quarter of local election officials received violent threats after 2020 election, survey finds
One in four local election officials and nearly two-thirds of those in large cities received violent threats after the 2020 election, and nearly one in five plan to leave their jobs before the next presidential election, according to a survey released Wednesday. The survey was the fourth since 2018 from the Elections and Voting Information […]
Pinal County rejected a push for an expanded hand-count of 2022 ballots
Pinal County won’t follow in the footsteps of Cochise County to expand a standard post-election hand-count audit of ballots this month. The Pinal County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday voted down a proposal to expand the post-election audit after lengthy, and at times contentious, public comments — the majority of which were against an expanded […]
Judge rejects lawsuit to stop groups surveilling drop boxes, citing First Amendment protections
A federal judge in Phoenix denied a bid to shut down efforts by a group that has been surveilling drop boxes in Maricopa County, saying that it would violate the First Amendment rights of the watchers. Two separate lawsuits have been filed aiming to stop extremist groups from surveilling drop boxes in Maricopa and Yavapai […]
‘Burning the candle at both ends’: Inside one of the nation’s busiest elections offices
PHOENIX — During the first few days that Arizona’s Maricopa County began tabulating early votes, County Recorder Stephen Richer ran between interviews and meetings, responded on Twitter to dozens of voters with questions about the election and held a press conference for reporters. He managed this all while overseeing a staff and volunteers who were […]
A right-wing extremist active in a racist online chat room has interviewed multiple AZ GOP candidates
Several Republican candidates have done interviews with an Arizona man who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 and is an active member of a Telegram channel filled with neo-Nazi and antisemitic rhetoric. Micajah Jackson, known online by the handle “The JFK Report,” was one of the first people sentenced earlier this year for entering the […]
More reports of voter intimidation at Valley ballot drop boxes are being referred to prosecutors
The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office has forwarded four new reports of voter intimidation near ballot drop boxes to state and federal law enforcement, and it is asking the FBI to investigate a death threat sent to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and the state election director. One voter, whose name was redacted from a […]