PHOENIX — With hundreds of thousands of ballots left to be counted in Maricopa County and across the state, both candidates for governor, Democratic Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake are keeping close tabs as the latest results are announced.
Hobbs may be ahead in the Governor's race now, but Kari Lake is convinced the lead is fleeting.
"My victory is inevitable. Katie Hobbs has run out of ballots to count. They may get more votes here and there but the votes that are coming are to go in our direction," Lake said in an interview Thursday.
Kari Lake has been hoping to celebrate a victory since election night, but there have been problems in Maricopa County.
First with ballot printers not working on Election Day, then the extraordinary number of early ballots, 290,000, that were returned on Election Day, which is increasing the time it is taking for election workers to count the ballots.
Maricopa County Elections officials now say final results are still days away.
"I think they're not very good at what they do. I think they are in no hurry to get the election day vote counted and I think they need to be replaced and voted out of office as soon as possible," Lake said.
The Hobbs's campaign has stayed away from criticizing county officials.
Campaign Manager Nicole Demont said, "We've said from the beginning that this was going to be a tight race. Each and every Arizonan deserves to have their ballot counted and their voice heard, and in the days to come we will continue to watch these results closely to make sure that happens."
Lake has criticized Maricopa County elections officials for being incompetent and unethical.
She also says they are slow rolling the results in an attempt to diminish the accomplishments of Trump Republicans in Arizona.
A charge county officials deny. "I'm not down there," Lake said, "I hope there is no fraud I really do. It's hard to make that accusation right this second without evidence. What I do know is that we are counting votes slowly, we're not moving fast enough. We shouldn't be dragging people through this. We need to improve the way we do elections. It's ridiculous."
Lake is not waiting for the final results. She says her team is already preparing for the transition.
