Former Republican President Donald Trump is far from abandoning his claims of election fraud, instead expanding them to include the 2022 midterms—surprising nobody.
In a post at 2:30am, Trump called the Arizona governor's race "yet another criminal voting operation" and made some very bold claims about voting equipment used in the election.
He then called for Kari Lake—the Trump-favored Republican who very much lost the race to Democratic Governor-elect Katie Hobbs—to be "installed Governor of Arizona."
You can see Trump's Truth Social post here:
\u201c2:30 AM post: \u201cKari Lake should be installed Governor of Arizona.\u201d\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
Of course, he also took the opportunity to spread lies about his own election loss—claiming the "unselect committee" won't investigate because of some apparent conspiracy.
Lake herself refused to accept her loss, telling far-right streaming service Real America’s Voice over the weekend:
"We know we won this election. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure that every single Arizonans vote that was disenfranchised is counted."
In addition to Lake, some Republican-controlled counties in Arizona held out on certifying the 2022 midterm results.
Rural Cochise and Mojave counties refused to certify their elections.
The state indicated if the counties fail to meet the Monday certification deadline they will either take the matter to court to force certification or all of the ballots from those counties will be discarded.
Lake and other Arizona Republicans latched onto issues with some ballot printers at some voting sites that printed ballots too light to be read by the counting machines on-site, but which have since been properly counted.
Twitter users had something to say about Trump's insistence Lake be "installed" even though she lost.
\u201c@RonFilipkowski\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@DavidLaDuca @RonFilipkowski\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@JoJoFromJerz @RonFilipkowski Yeah but remember, liberals are the real authoritarians. Because \u201cwoke\u201d. Or something.\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@DemocraticDaisy @RonFilipkowski He was so tired afterwards, he laid right down and stopped breathing.\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@DemocraticDaisy @RonFilipkowski\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@Brim4Tom @RonFilipkowski Maybe we could start off with something easy. Maybe just for a change authorities could act sorta kinda like trying to overturn an election is not nice? Maybe even wrong?\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@jeremynewberger @RonFilipkowski This toilet is way more honest than Kari Lake.\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@DemocraticDaisy @RonFilipkowski When known #losers advocate for known #losers.\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@kevzennelzen @RonFilipkowski Or call them erections!\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
\u201c@BritishChickUSA @RonFilipkowski\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1669636146
Lake claimed some of her supporters may have been convinced not to vote by extra long lines resulting from this error and filed a public records lawsuit demanding more information about the problem and any voters who may have been unable to cast ballots.
Maricopa County election officials have since responded, saying nobody was prevented from voting and 85% of voting centers in the county never had wait times longer than 45 minutes. In addition, they said most voting centers which did have long wait times had nearby centers which did not.
Their response also laid blame for much of the confusion at the feet of prominent Republican leaders—like party chair Kelli Ward—for Twitter posts that spread confusion by telling their supporters not to place their ballots in secure boxes to be counted later if they were unable to be counted immediately on-site.
