Something just isn’t adding up, and not because Maricopa County is in charge of the math.
A little trip down memory lane shows that Katie Hobbs’ election to the position of Secretary of State in 2018 was eerily like her election for governor this year.
Way back in 2018, the Associated Press had originally called the race for Republican candidate Steve Gaynor. As days passed, the vote count shifted in favor of Hobbs.
Now, a close election does not necessitate foul play. But basic arithmetic might suggest otherwise.
In the 2018 Arizona election, 2,376,166 votes were cast in the governor’s race. Republican Doug Ducey won a second term by a 14.2% margin. Just for kicks, I’ll note that Maricopa County went red for Ducey by over 13 points a mere four years ago.
Almost as many votes—2,332,685—were cast in the race for Secretary of State. Democrat Katie Hobbs “bested” her Republican opponent by about twenty thousand ballots, or should I say votes. She also got 182,043 more votes than Ducey’s Democrat opponent.
With the two-party system we have today, I personally cannot fathom ever splitting my ticket, but maybe tens of thousands of people can, and perhaps they did in Arizona in 2018.
Maybe in 2018 Arizona did elect a Democrat Secretary of State for the first time in 28 years.
And maybe Maricopa County did go blue by one percent. It was the only county with a split ticket result between the two 2018 races. Maricopa residents sure must have been gung-ho on Katie Hobbs! It must be her charm and charisma. Or maybe her compassion for minorities. Oh, wait.
Fast-forward to this year: Katie Hobbs refused to debate her opponent. Talk about a weak candidate! While polls aren’t perfect, they showed Hobbs behind by up to four points since early October. Then Maricopa County took seven days to count ballots.
Katie Hobbs, cool as a cucumber throughout her sorry excuse of a campaign, landed atop the Governor’s race by…wait for it… about twenty thousand votes.
Oh, and recall, Katie Hobbs has overseen elections in Arizona since 2019.
Look, I’m not making any claims here. But isn’t it all just a little funny? Not funny-ha-ha, but funny-weird.
I’d have more confidence in the results if any liberal outlet would concede that taking a week to call a race seems rather strange. Some conservative politicians and pundits have compared Arizona’s turtle tallying to Florida’s rapid, three-hour count. But you don’t even need to cross the country; most of Arizona was able to get it together in one night. Couldn’t they have offered their mathematical assistance or machines to the state’s largest county?
Instead, the media and Team Hobbs spent their time pushing the same narrative. According to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates, the foot-dragging was “absolutely normal.” That’s why it’s called Election Week and not Election Day, of course!
And sure, machines were malfunctioning, but no worries! Happens all the time, really.
It wasn’t that long ago that mail-in ballots were sometimes the GOP’s firewall in close races. They were called “military ballots,” and they came in from active-duty service members overseas. They usually broke Republican, big time.
When was the last time you even heard of “military ballots?” Those were the good old days…
If some Democrat operatives with press passes would agree that it’s odd for a candidate not to want the exposure of a televised debate, I’d have more faith. But instead they told us that Hobbs was courageous for pulling a “basement Biden.”
Wait, there’s one more: Kari Lake is a deranged lunatic.
Why paint Lake as insane? Because Kari Lake told everyone exactly what would happen in Arizona between November 8 and November 14. She promised to gut the corruption—er, I mean, laidback disposition—in the Arizona elections departments.
Katie Hobbs can’t have that. Did I mention she’s currently Arizona’s Chief Elections Officer?
If I’m a little skeptical, it’s because I’ve listened to Lake speak. She’s quick, eloquent, and clearly with-it. It’s also because this “election denier” narrative runs parallel with everything else the Left has been pushing for half a decade.
You’re a “science denier” if you decided to forego the experimental government-funded DNA-altering injection because it might give you heart problems.
You’re a “climate denier” if you wonder why Czar Kerry and the gang need to travel to foreign countries in private jets to talk about taking away your gas-powered SUV.
You’re an “election denier” if you wonder why on earth the elections that take days to count, and why it is that the longer a state takes to count the “votes,” the more certain it is that the Democrats will win in the end.
But none of the arguments is perfectly sound. “Expert” claims tend to unravel months later. “Fact-checkers” forget to Pinocchio one side entirely.
Likewise, something about Arizona just doesn’t add up.