Arizona GOP Gubernatorial Nominee Kari Lake Won’t Commit To Accepting Election Results

Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake repeated false allegations of election fraud in her state and dodged a question about whether she would accept the election result if she loses.

In an interview on ABC’s This Week, Lake said she would accept the result of the election if it was “fair, honest and transparent.”

“I will accept the results of this election if we have a fair, honest and transparent election. Absolutely, 100%,” she said, without stating if that included a scenario in which she loses.

During an interview with @JonKarl, Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake would not explicitly commit to accepting the outcome of her upcoming election if she loses to her Democratic opponent. https://t.co/Bdntzo4ZgQ pic.twitter.com/y7SjAAA1jA

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— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 23, 2022

A week before, in an interview aired on CNN, Lake refused to answer if she would concede in case of victory of her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs. Instead, she repeated she would win.

Lake, a former TV anchor, is a prominent election denier and has been repeating false allegations made by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential elections were rigged.

She has been a critic of early voting, claiming it harms the trust in the election process. In Arizona, 91% of voting in 2020 happened by early voting. In the August primary, the rate was 85%, according to Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.

One of the false claims repeated in the interview was that 740,000 ballots violated the chain of custody requirements in Maricopa County, which was denied by county election officials.

Chain of custody refers to the process that tracks the transfer of a ballot from one person or place to another.

In a document released in May, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors asserts that ballots “were sealed in envelopes that, in turn, were sealed in boxes that the couriers were prohibited from opening.”