(NewsGlobal.com)- Last week, Arizona’s state officials signed papers certifying the results of the midterm elections after two heavily Republican counties initially delayed certifying their results. One, Cochise County, only certified its results after being ordered to do so by a judge.
At last Monday’s certification, outgoing Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who won the governor’s race, signed the documents certifying the results in all 15 Arizona counties. Also signing the certifications were outgoing Governor Doug Doucy, outgoing Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Chief Justice Robert Brutinel of the Arizona Supreme Court.
In a speech before signing the certifications, Secretary of State Hobbs addressed the ongoing controversy over the Arizona election, claiming that “powerful voices” were spreading “misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters.”
While Hobbs declared that “democracy prevailed,” she warned that democracy isn’t “out of the woods” yet.
Hobbs warned that 2024 will likely bring another round of conspiracies from what she described as “the election denial community,” and encouraged Arizonans to be prepared to push back against election misinformation.
While the election has been certified, more lawsuits lie ahead.
Last Friday, Republican Kari Lake, who lost to Hobbs by over 17,000 votes, filed suit against Arizona election officials challenging the ballot counting and certification and asking the court to declare her the winner.
Governor-elect Hobbs called Lake’s lawsuit “baseless” and “the latest desperate attempt to undermine our democracy and throw out the will of the voters.”
Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh also filed suit on Friday seeking to eliminate votes he claims were illegally tallied and to include other votes he claims were improperly left out of the official count.
Hamedeh lost his race by 511 votes.
Unlike Lake’s lawsuit, Hamedeh does not allege voter fraud, manipulation, or “intentional wrongdoing that would impugn the outcomes” of the November 8 midterm election.
