Newt Gingrich Calls for ‘Honest Count’ in Arizona Election: ‘It’s Amazing to Me What a Big Mess This Is’

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at a rally for Republican Congressional candidate Jen Kiggans in Virginia Beach, Va., on Nov. 7, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

Arizona candidate for governor Kari Lake deserves to see an “honest count” after nearly a dozen Republican attorneys described widespread election day problems in the state’s Maricopa county, said Epoch Times contributor and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“I think all she has to say right now is that she wants to see exactly what happens, and she wants to see whether or not there’s a final result,” Gingrich said talking about Lake who has refused so far to concede to her opponent Kati Hobbs.

On election day, widespread problems with tabulation equipment took place affecting about 30 percent of all voting locations and an estimated 17,000 ballots, according to local election officials.

According to Republican National Committee attorneys observing election sites in the county, the problems resulted in long lines and frustrated voters leaving the vote centers without voting, leading to “substantial voter suppression.”.

Gingrich described the finding as “astonishing” and noted that these problems particularly affected Republican voters, who tend to vote on election day.

According to Gingrich, if the issue had affected primarily democrat voters “you would’ve had a huge outcry.”

“It’s amazing to me what a big mess this is,” Gingrich said.

Arizona Attorney General’s office has opened an inquiry into the polling issues in Maricopa after receiving hundreds of complaints. Jennifer Wright, the assistant attorney general, said the ballot-on-demand printers were tested the night prior to the elections without any apparent problems but that tabulators began having trouble reading the ballots printed by the printers “within the first thirty minutes of voting” the next day.

Republican Arizona gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake, left, and Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Getty Images

“Arizonans deserve a full report and accounting of the myriad problems that occurred in relation to Maricopa County’s administration of the 2022 General Election,” she wrote in a letter. The deadline she set for a response from the civil division of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is Nov. 28.

Gingrich believes that Lake “should be in favor of an honest count” and advised her to “be prepared to be patient.”

“I don’t think she should make any charges until they know something, but certainly there are enough things going on, and the fact that the Attorney General of Arizona is now involved says to me that it’s a situation that’s worth looking into,” he said. “She has no reason to jump ahead.”

Two rural Arizona counties, Mohave and Cochise, have put off certifying midterm election results in a protest against issues occurring in Maricopa. Unlike Mohave, which promised to certify results by Nov. 28, Cochise has not made such an explicit pledge. The state elections director Kori Lorick on Monday warned that Cochise county votes could go uncounted if the secretary of state’s office doesn’t receive the certification by Dec. 5, potentially giving a boost to Democrats.

Lake, a former local news anchor, has been sharing videos of voters complaining about their election-day experience. She released a statement on Monday saying her attorney has been “working diligently to gather information.”

“Whistleblowers are coming forward and the curtain is being lifted. Whether done accidentally or intentionally it is clear that this election was a debacle that destroyed any trust in our elections,” she said.