Election denier Kari Lake refuses to concede Arizona governor race she lost

Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for Arizona governor, declined to concede her race on Thursday, instead vowing to “fight on” in a new video posted on Twitter.

The Associated Press has projected Lake will lose the race to Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. But Lake, who made election denialism a centerpiece of her campaign, has declined to recognize her opponent as the winner.

In the two-and-a-half-minute video, Lake focused on long lines at the polls on election day and falsely said “tens of thousands” of voters in Maricopa county had been disenfranchised. She suggested legal action, saying she had assembled the “best and brightest” legal team.

“For two years I have been sounding the alarm about our election system in Arizona. And this past week has confirmed everything we’ve been saying,” she said. “Our election officials failed us miserably. What happened to Arizonans on election day is unforgivable.”

There were equipment malfunctions at about a third of polling locations on election day in Maricopa county, but voters were still able to cast their ballots. Officials had figured out a solution by the afternoon. A county judge also rejected a lawsuit filed by Republicans to extend voting hours, saying there was no evidence voters had been disenfranchised.

“We feel very confident that every voter had the opportunity to vote and have their vote counted,” Bill Gates, the chairman of the Maricopa county board of supervisors, said on election day. “Nobody was disenfranchised today.”

That has not stopped misinformation from spreading about the election. During the first post-election meeting of the Maricopa county board of supervisors on Wednesday, speakers called the election “a scam”, “a farce”, “unlawful” and “a complete disaster”, according to the Arizona Republic.

Lake was one of several election deniers who lost their races last week. Some of those candidates, including Blake Masters, a Republican running for senate in Arizona, have conceded their races. Others, including Mark Finchem, a far-right lawmaker who was running to be Arizona’s top election official, have declined to concede.