#arizona midterms

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Maricopa County has identified the solution for the tabulation issues at about 60 Vote Centers. County technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have resolved this issue. It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots. This solution has worked at 17 locations, and technicians deployed throughout the county are working to resolve this issue at the remaining locations.

ARIZONA VOTERS

They're currently fixing the "problem". Stay in line. Get back in line if you had to leave. Vote. The Democratic governor candidate is the current Secretary of State who is in charge of voting in the state. She hasn't recused herself from the position of overseeing the election she's running in. She hasn't even showed up for work today! The only way these problems go away is if you vote Kari Lake and Blake Masters in. Vote!

[spennythespoon]

Georgia Senate race really be like

Edit 12/07/2022: Hell Yeah Warnock won

[not-safe-for-democracy]

[profeminist]

BREAKING: MSNBC just called Hobbs for AZ governor. Back to your hell pit Kari Lake!

[lastoneout]

BLUE ARIZONA LETS FUCKING GO BABY!!!

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

Katie Hobbs (D) has won the Governor's race in Arizona, beating election-denier and transphobe Kari Lake

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Video footage released Friday night showing armed individuals sitting near a ballot drop box in Mesa, Arizona is heightening alarm over right-wing intimidation efforts as early voting kicks off across the United States.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office told a local ABC affiliate that it is investigating several individuals who were watching a Mesa voting location on Friday. The department confirmed that two individuals at the site were armed.

A clip posted to social media by ABC reporter Nicole Grigg shows two masked people dressed in tactical gear observing the ballot drop box.

"This is obviously totally incompatible with liberal democracy and an open society," MSNBC's Chris Hayes wrote in response to the video.

Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, emerged as a key election-denial flashpoint in 2020 as Trump supporters baselessly accused local officials of engaging in fraud to deny the former president a second term. President Joe Biden narrowly won the state in 2020, a victory that was subsequently confirmed by a GOP-led review of the vote count.

Two years later, in the midst of the critical midterm election season, Arizona is once again drawing national attention as right-wing groups animated by false fraud narratives mobilize and harass voters. Making matters worse, election deniers are running for key posts in the state, including governor and secretary of state.

Earlier this week, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs referred to the U.S. Justice Department a report from a Mesa voter who said that a group of people gathered near a ballot drop box filmed and photographed him and his wife as they attempted to vote.

The person said he was accused of "being a mule," a reference to a ballot-stuffing conspiracy theory that's become popular in right-wing circles.

Justin Heywood, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, told VICE that "the county supports the referral to the Department of Justice on this potential case of voter intimidation."

"We have received four reports forwarded by the Arizona Secretary of State's Office," Heywood said. "We encourage any voter who feels threatened, harassed, or intimidated to report it. It is unacceptable and unlawful to impede any voter from participating in the election."

In another complaint that Hobbs forwarded to local election officials, a voter said there were "camo-clad people taking pictures of me, my license plate as I dropped our mail-in ballots in the box."

"When I approached them asking names, group they're with, they wouldn't give anything," the complaint continued. "They asked why I wanted to know, well it's because it's a personal attack."

One individual who was watching a ballot drop box in Maricopa County earlier this week said he was with a group called Clean Elections USA, which declares on its website that it is "asking every patriotic American citizen to join us as we organize to safeguard our elections with a legal presence at every ballot box in each and every state that has them."

The organization's about page features an image of a person submitting a ballot crudely labeled "dead person's vote."

Concerns about right-wing voter intimidation efforts reach well beyond Arizona.

"While poll watching has been an element of electoral transparency since the 1800s, the practice grew in prominence in the 2020 election cycle due to former President Donald Trump's unfounded allegations of voter fraud," the Associated Press reported in August. "Trump's debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election results were fraudulent has motivated thousands of his supporters to scrutinize elections operations nationwide, intensifying concerns of voter intimidation."

"A survey of county elections directors in late May found violations in 15 North Carolina counties, where officials observed poll watchers harassing voters and attempting to enter restricted areas to view confidential voting records," the outlet noted.

In addition to intimidation efforts at polling sites, recently released police bodycam footage shows cops arresting people accused of voter fraud as part of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' newly formed Office of Election Crimes and Security.

While a Miami judge on Friday dropped charges against one 56-year-old man who was arrested for supposed fraud, rights groups have warned that such arrests could have a chilling effect on voter turnout.

As Politico reported, the man "was among 20 mostly Black defendants arrested in August as part of a voter fraud crackdown led by the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security. The first wave of arrests, which were announced during a high-profile press conference in mid-August, focused on people previously convicted of felonies who voted despite not having their voting rights restored."

"Yet since those arrests, new information was uncovered showing that most of the defendants were told by state officials that they could vote," Politico added. "In each case, the defendants registered to vote without issue. Election officials with the DeSantis administration processed the voter registrations, which caused confusion among the defendants who believed they were legally allowed to vote."

The ACLU of Florida said in a Wednesday statement that "the timing of these arrests and the respective announcement in August, less than a week from the primary, made clear then that the purpose of this office is to investigate and intimidate Florida voters."

In other key states such as Georgia—which could determine control of the U.S. Senate—voters are running up against barriers established by Republican officials and lawmakers as part of a nationwide voter suppression push.

"Under the state's new Election Integrity Act, Georgia citizens can challenge a voter's eligibility on the state's voting rolls an unlimited number of times," The Guardian reported Saturday. "Right-wing groups, spurred by baseless claims that the 2020 election was rife with voter fraud, have mounted thousands of organized challenges across the state, putting even more pressure on the election process for voters, poll workers, and election officials."

"While most have been dismissed already," the newspaper observed, "more challenges cropped up ahead of early voting."

[fatchance]

I voted early in Cochise County.

This year voting felt a little different. There were several candidates on my ballot that seem willing to make voting harder and less accessible for people in Arizona. They don’t think they can win based on the strength of their (mostly horrible) ideas, so they want to silence the inconvenient citizens who don’t see things their way. I want to remain inconvenient as long as I can. 

If you live in a state that doesn’t allow permanent early voting by mail, I’d urge you to petition your legislature or representatives to adopt it. I spent over an hour completing my ballot today. I consider myself fairly well-informed about the candidates and propositions on our ballot, but voting still required careful reading and care. I can’t imagine taking that much time in a voting booth. Voting from home meant I could take my time and do a little extra research. Ballotpedia is a great starting point, and this year the Sierra Vista hometown newspaper posted short candidate interviews on YouTube for mayoral and town council contests. 

Choosing can still be hard. This is an old rant: It is 2022. Anyone running for office should have a dedicated web page describing their positions, qualifications, affiliations, and endorsements.  A Facebook page and a few thousand yard signs is not enough. It is past time to figure this out. 

[marvelsmostwanted]

I only learned who Kari Lake was like two weeks ago but it’s still very satisfying to see an election denier lose.

Katie Hobbs will be Arizona’s next governor!

[fantastic-nonsense]

imo the North Carolina Senate race is a sleeper race that absolutely no one is paying attention to despite it being one of the most competitive races this election season and I'm putting my bets down it will go Dem by .5-1%

[queerism1969]

[tomorrowusa]

Tied with Pennsylvania, the election for governor of Arizona was the most important gubernatorial race of 2022.

So it is enormously pleasing that Democrat Katie Hobbs has finally been projected to defeat far right Trump Republican Kari Lake.

Lake is a notorious election denier and mouthpiece for numerous conspiracy theories. All three high profile election deniers on the statewide ballot in swing state Arizona have gone down to defeat.

Calling the 2020 election rigged, Republican Kari Lake had repeatedly said she would not have certified Joe Biden’s win in Arizona in 2020. Hobbs, as Arizona’s secretary of state, had rejected GOP lies about the election.  

Lake’s defeat follows the defeat of two other high-profile election deniers in the state – Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters and secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem.   

In her defeat, Lake exhibited the typical sore loser Trump Republican thinking about election results: It’s always either “I won” or “It was stolen from me”.

Lake did not acknowledge Hobbs’ victory, instead tweeting, “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”  

The Republican nominee had already begun sowing doubts about the 2022 results. During an appearance on Fox News Monday before the race was called, Lake baselessly called the election “botched.” 

Kari Lake is, in fact, a HŪGE LOOZER like Donald Trump.

[ms-cellanies]

REPORT ANY INTIMIDATION YOU EXPERIENCE TO YOUR LOCAL ELECTION OFFICE.  REGISTER A COMPLAINT.  IF THOSE PEOPLE ARE IN THEIR CARS, TAKE PHOTOS OF THEM & THEIR LICENSE TAG.  Turnabout is fair play.  Give them a dose of their own medicine.

[iamnomad98]

If Some More News's 55-minute dive into Peter Thiel is too long for you, this is a good 11-minute digest with JT from Second Thought.

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

Sunday Morning Update on Senate and Governor Races

Senate

Nevada- Catherine Cortez Masto (D) wins! 🔷

With this win, the Democrats have ensured they retain majority of the Senate.

Governor

Arizona- not called yet, 88% reporting

Katie Hobbs (D) leading by 1.4%

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A GOP candidate running for an Arizona college district’s governing board was arrested on a charge of public sexual indecency after an officer allegedly caught him masturbating in his truck near a preschool.

Randy Kaufman was arrested Oct. 4 but suspended his campaign Tuesday following media reports of his arrest. Kaufman is running for the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District, and was allegedly caught masturbating by the county’s community college police.

“I fucked up,” Kaufman told an officer during his arrest, according to a police report.

The report says the incident began when an officer with the Maricopa County Community Colleges Police approached Kaufman’s parked vehicle and saw the man with his pants down.

“[Kaufman] appeared to be looking at a cell phone in one hand,” the police report said. “I immediately became alarmed as I saw [Kaufman] had his pants down mid-thigh and was exposed showing his fully erect nude penis. [Kaufman] was manipulating his genitals in a masturbatory manner.”

The officer said Kaufman didn’t seem to notice the officer at first, but that Kaufman was in view of a nearby bicyclist and a preschool where children were playing outside. When confronted, the officer said, Kaufman apologized for the act.

“I’m sorry,” Kaufman said, according to the report. “I fucked up. I’m really stressed.”

Kaufman, who told police he worked as an officer with the Arizona Department of Corrections for 27 years, said he didn’t know there was a preschool just feet away, according to the report.

“Are you going to put that in the report?” the officer said Kaufman asked.

“Don’t you see how alarming that is?” the officer responded, according to the report. “That there are children nearby, people passing on bikes and in cars where they can look and see what you are doing?”

In a Facebook post from May, Kaufman said he wanted “our children protected [from] the progressive left.”

Kaufman was charged with public sexual indecency, but 12News in Phoenix reported that Kaufman could also face a possible felony charge because of his proximity to the preschool.

Despite the charge, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said it’s too late for Kaufman’s name to be removed from the ballot, and some people have already voted early.

In a statement about his suspended campaign, Kaufman didn’t address the arrest, but said he “will never stop fighting to protect the United States Constitution and the values that make America the greatest country in the world.”

Kaufman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.