Arizona certified the midterm election results on Monday following a number of contentious, close races, including the one for governor.
Governor-elect Democrat Katie Hobbs beat Republican Kari Lake, who has still yet to concede and is a Trump-backed election denier. Democrat Adrian Fontes was elected over another 2020 election denier Republican Mark Finchem to become the next secretary of state.
Arizona’s finalizing of results comes as numerous members of the Arizona GOP have said they will challenge the election results in court following printer malfunctions in one of the state’s most influential counties. Lake and attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh (R), whose race is heading to a recount, have already said that they will be filing within the next five days to meet the deadline under state law.
Both Lake and Hamadeh took issue with Hobbs’ signing off on the certification in her current role as Arizona secretary of state since she was also a candidate in the midterm elections.
Hobbs dismissed the claims.
“Arizona had a successful election,” she said. “But too often throughout the process, powerful voices proliferated misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters. Democracy prevailed, but it’s not out of the woods. 2024 will bring a host of challenges from the election denial community that we must prepare for.”
She also added that the voting equipment was tested within the certification process and that the election was “transparent, fair and accurate.”
Now the state will proceed with recounts in races for attorney general, state superintendent and a state House seat in the Pheonix area which were too close to call.
