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Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s current secretary of state and Democrat gubernatorial nominee, fumbled the proverbial ball this month in a ballot snafu that sent up to 6,000 possibly problematic ballots to Arizona voters.
Per Breitbart, Hobbs’ mistake was announced on Tuesday, revealing that the Arizona election system erroneously failed to properly verify voters’ citizenship status.
According to the Associated Press, “A problem with the link between voter registration and driver’s license databases may have caused as many as 6,000 voters to be improperly flagged as lacking proof of citizenship documentation on file. Election officials are sifting through the list to determine how many of the 6,000 were improperly flagged.”
Per their report, around 1,000 people received a ballot with no local races included because the erroneously flagged voters were marked as eligible to vote only in federal elections.
While the alleged database issue appears to be an isolated event in Arizona, it is not the first time that a state office has come under scrutiny for dropping the ball this election season. RSBN previously reported Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold accidentally sent approximately 30,000 voter registration postcards to noncitizens. In that case, the error was also blamed on a computer error, or “database glitch.”
Katie Hobbs’ Republican opponent in the governor’s race, Kari Lake, slammed Hobbs for her office’s error. “As Secretary of State (who literally oversees the very election she is running in) Katie Hobbs only showed up to work 19 days in the last 6 months,” Lake wrote on Twitter.
“Perhaps this is why Arizonans are getting faulty ballots? Your thoughts?” she added.
Lake is holding a solid lead over Hobbs going into Election Day. Per RSBN, a new Fox 10 and InsideAdvantage poll projects Trump-endorsed Kari Lake to beat Hobbs for the governorship at 49 percent to 46 percent.
Hobbs has also refused to debate Lake, which has become a sticking point with many Arizonan voters.
Kari Lake quipped on Twitter: “@katiehobbs doesn’t show up for work as Secretary of State. She doesn’t show up for the job interview for Governor. And she wants us to think that she’ll show up for the people of Arizona? She has no business running this election. Recuse yourself, Katie.”