Savannah Hulsey Pointer, FISM News
Americans are less likely to think the election was fair and accurate if results take “days or weeks” to be tallied, according to recent data from the Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll.
The poll indicated that Republicans were more inclined than Independents or Democrats to have doubts about the outcome, but overall, 33.9% of respondents believed it to be “much less probable” the results that aren’t quickly tabulated are accurate. An additional 20.9% believed it to be “somewhat less likely” that results that took “days or weeks” to record are credible.
For Republicans, 62.7% said they were “much less likely” to accept results that took “days or weeks” to collect, 27% of Independents joined Republicans in their opinion and 10.4% of Democrats said the same.
“The majority of Americans are now skeptical about the outcomes of elections, which creates a fundamental problem that — if left unchecked — could undermine our entire democracy,” President of the Convention of States Mark Meckler said in a statement.
According to Rasmussen Reports, one of the top concerns for voters in the run-up to the midterm elections was election integrity. It was predicted to be a significant issue at the time by 84% of probable voters in the midterm elections.
“The answer does not lie in Washington, D.C., this problem can and must be fixed close to home. State legislatures need to make strengthening election integrity priority number one, and governors need to focus on vigorous enforcement. Until we get the problem under control, this needs to be treated as the state-by-state emergency that it is,” Meckler said.
Election integrity has become the central issue in the as-yet uncertified Arizona elections. Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake spoke to that issue when she tweeted Monday, “Arizonans have no Faith & Trust in our Elections. Our Election Officials are incompetent (…or worse) They have failed us. The Fake News ignores our Fake Elections and expect us to just ‘move on.’ We won’t. America will NOT survive if we don’t demand Election Reform NOW.”
Arizonans have no Faith & Trust in our Elections.
Our Election Officials are incompetent (…or worse)
They have failed us.The Fake News ignores our Fake Elections and expect us to just “move on.”
We won’t.
America will NOT survive if we don’t demand Election Reform NOW.
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 28, 2022
Lake’s comments came just days before a state judge dismissed a lawsuit from Republican Attorney General candidate Abraham Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee where they contested the results for the state’s attorney general race, arguing the election was “afflicted with certain errors and inaccuracies” that caused the Republican to lose.
According to The Washington Examiner Maricopa County Superior Court, Judge Randall Warner rejected the lawsuit saying that the parties cannot file the suit until the election results are certified by the state.
“Under these statutes there can be no election contest until after the canvass and declaration of results because, until then, no one is ‘declared elected,’” Warner wrote in his ruling. “It is undisputed that the canvass and declaration of results for the November 2022 election have not occurred.”
The state is required to certify the election results by December 5, but a rural GOP county’s refusal to do so is threatening that process. In Cochise County, Arizona, two Republican supervisors agreed to postpone the county’s election results until Friday, four days after the state-mandated deadline for results certification passed. The state law requires that all counties meet to certify elections no longer than 20 days after an election is held.
As state officials raced to certify election results statewide, which necessitates certified results from all 15 counties, the vote swiftly sparked court challenges, and could even result in jail time for the two supervisors.
Katie Hobbs, the current secretary of state and the newly elected governor, sued the county on Monday for not certifying the results.