Kari Lake Outraged Over 'Glitch' Changing Voter Registrations

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake is warning citizens following a statewide voting system "glitch."

"The cartel lawyer (Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes) who is sitting in the Arizona Secretary of State's office says a 'glitch' is switching voter registrations and it could affect your ability to vote in the Presidential Preference in AZ in March," Lake wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on January 21.

Newsweek reached out to Lake via email for comment.

Lake narrowly lost her 2022 gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs and has hotly contested the results ever since. Lake and her legal counsel have filed and lost numerous election fraud lawsuits that were ultimately dismissed by the courts due to a lack of evidence. Her Senate aspirations, which could be thwarted by independent incumbent Senator Kyrsten Sinema or a Democratic Party candidate, had a rocky start with lower fundraising totals in comparison with her rivals.

Last month, a Maricopa County judge refused to throw out a defamation lawsuit brought against Lake by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a fellow registered Republican. Lake—an ardent Donald Trump supporter who falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen—accused Richer of "intentionally printing misconfigured ballots" and inserting "300,000 illegal ballots" to thwart her campaign.

Her accusations that Richer purportedly rigged the 2022 election against her have not been backed up by substantial evidence.

In her post on X, Lake cited a story by the Arizona Daily Independent, which reported that the Arizona secretary of state's office notified county recorders on January 18 of an issue in an email titled, "Critical: Please Verify EZ Voter Party Preferences."

"We are currently investigating an issue where EZ Voter transactions party preferences as of 1/17/2024 are now containing the word 'Party' at the end of the party preference value," the notice purportedly stated. "As a result, the current AVID [Arizona Voter Information Database] system may set an EZ Voter party preference to 'Other' by default instead of one of the designated party preferences. This is currently impacting all recognized party preference values."

Fontes spokesperson Aaron Thacker told Newsweek on Tuesday that he's unsure of the exact language within the aforementioned email but did confirm that a notice was sent. He added that the situation was recognized and remedied within a 24-hour period.

It was not a "glitch," Thacker said, but more so a "programming error" that impacted 58 Arizonans.

It occurred when citizens attempted to register as part of early voting, and if a prospective voter added the word "party" after either attempting to register as a Republican or Democrat, the system automatically changed the party affiliation to "other."

"Our AVID team swiftly identified the problem and corrected it, resulting in no issues with people's registration," Thacker said. "The Arizona Secretary of State's Office remains committed to safe, transparent, and secure elections."

He added: "These things happen and that's why we have the teams that we have. Their job is to identify and prevent problems like this from happening."

Abe Hamadeh, a Republican who lost his 2022 race to be Arizona's attorney general and, like Lake, subsequently sowed doubt in the state's elections, said the issue is part of a larger statewide problem.

"Until the courts take our right to vote seriously, this type of voter disenfranchised will continue to happen," Hamadeh wrote on X. "Is there any court willing to do what's right?"

Correction 1/23/24, 6:08 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Abe Hamadeh ran to be Arizona's secretary of state. Hamadeh was a candidate in Arizona's attorney general's race.