On Monday's Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, anchor Andrea Mitchell said with a straight face that the wildly dysfunctional election board in Maricopa County, Arizona has "some of the best vote-counting processes" despite the fact that it's been nearly a week since the election and we still don't have the complete election results reported. Apparently, Mitchell thinks this is normal behavior in a functioning democracy.
Turning to NBC's senior political editor Mark Murray, Mitchell turned the discussion to what's left to be counted in Maricopa County. "What's left out there in terms of how the vote keeps, you know, coming in," she asked.
Mitchell then proclaimed that "despite all of what has been said by Donald Trump and other election deniers and now beginning to be also Kelly Ward who's falling behind Katie Hobbs for the governor's race. Maricopa County has some of the best vote-counting processes because of past problems." Speaking of problems, Mitchell said "Kelly Ward" instead of Kari Lake.
Unsurprisingly Murray agreed with her:
Yeah, Andrea, they have a whole lot of practice. We have a whole lot of practice watching the Arizona returns. We saw this in 2018, we saw it in 2020 and we're seeing it again in 2022. What ends up going on is there's this ping-pong of like where the votes are in particular counties and even in counties like Maricopa. That's the Phoenix area. You end up having Republican pockets and Democratic pockets and different kind of vote methods. Some are stronger for Republicans than Democrats. Last night was supposed to be a really good batch of votes for Kari Lake, the Republican running, and she ended up winning them but not by the margins you need to be able to have.
Murray added that "with Katie Hobbs now having a 26,000 vote margin, for Kari Lake to be able to win the remaining returns have to be not only good but certainly great, and the Hobbs campaign after the latest batch of ballots that came out from Maricopa County ended up declaring her as the unequivocal front runner or favorite to be able to win."
He ended by noting that "Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee is in the driver's seat."
At the time of publication, NBC and other networks have called the race for Hobbs, so it appears Murray was right in terms of who was the favorite to win.
This doesn't take away from the fact that Maricopa County appears incapable of running elections and tabulating the results. Mitchell is obviously delusional if she thinks the county "has some of the best vote-counting processes."
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To read the transcript click "expand":
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports
11/14/2022
12:26:12 p.m. EasternANDREA MITCHELL: Mark, let's talk about what we've learned from, for instance, what's happened out in Maricopa County, what's left out there in terms of how the vote keeps, you know, coming in, despite all of what has been said by Donald Trump and other election deniers and now beginning to be also Kelly Ward who's falling behind Katie Hobbs for the governor's race. Maricopa County has some of the best vote-counting processes because of past problems.
MARK MURRAY: Yeah, Andrea, they have a whole lot of practice. We have a whole lot of practice watching the Arizona returns. We saw this in 2018, we saw it in 2020 and we're seeing it again in 2022. What ends up going on is there's this ping-pong of like where the votes are in particular counties and even in counties like Maricopa. That's the Phoenix area. You end up having Republican pockets and Democratic pockets and different kind of vote methods. Some are stronger for Republicans than Democrats. Last night was supposed to be a really good batch of votes for Kari Lake, the Republican running, and she ended up winning them but not by the margins you need to be able to have.
With Katie Hobbs now having a 26,000 vote margin, for Kari Lake to be able to win the remaining returns have to be not only good but certainly great, and the Hobbs campaign after the latest batch of ballots that came out from Maricopa County ended up declaring her as the unequivocal front runner or favorite to be able to win. Now again, It's important to note that NBC has only referred to this race as too close to call, but certainly does seem to be that Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee is in the driver's seat.
