Supporters of Kari Lake—a QAnon adherent and election denier who is the Republican nominee in Arizona's gubernatorial race—demanded the military step in and redo what they allege is a "false" election as she continues to fall behind Katie Hobbs, her Democratic opponent.
The race between Lake and Hobbs—the Arizona Secretary of State whom Lake threatened with imprisonment on baseless and unspecified allegations of criminality related to the 2020 election—is currently too close to call.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Hobbs has won 50.5 percent of the vote compared to Lake's 49.5 percent. They are currently separated by a margin of just over 26,000 votes.
As far as Lake's supporters are concerned, that's a sign election fraud took place. Video footage shows protesters calling on the military to intervene.
You can see the footage below.
Earlier this year, Lake described herself as a "Trump candidate," aligning herself with former Republican President Donald Trump and his lies to further her own candidacy. She has long backed the insurrectionists who attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 on the false premise the election had been stolen.
Lake has attracted support from right-wing extremists, appearing with a Nazi sympathizer and QAnon-linked activists at campaign events.
The ongoing protests are no different, hosting a number of conspiracy theorists and Evangelical Christian nationalists who have accepted Lake and Trump's falsehoods about the election hook, line, and sinker.
Many have criticized them—and Lake—as a result.
Lake's path to victory has considerably narrowed, according to Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, who said that it's “extremely tough" to see how Lake wins after seeing Hobbs' lead widen nearly a week out from the election.
The majority of uncounted votes are in Maricopa County and Arizona officials have said the ballot-counting could continue through this week.
Lake herself has alleged wrongdoing, calling Arizona’s elections system a “laughingstock” and accusing Arizona's election officials of intentionally slowing down the process of tallying votes. Maricopa County's head of elections called her claims "offensive."
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