So when a great many of the American political commentators and podcasters whom I most respect predicted a “red wave” or even a “red tsunami” on Election Day, I thought: Well, I hope so. How could I demur? After all, they’re at the center of the action. I’m not.
Still, what I wanted to say to them was, first of all, this: You saw what happened two years ago. You know that there hasn’t been any comprehensive effort to make the voting system trustworthy. So how can you be so certain of a massive Republican sweep?
Sure enough, early on Election Day came news from Maricopa County, Arizona, of a problem with the vote-counting machines. For months, people around the country—around the world—had been following the gubernatorial race between the terrific newcomer Kari Lake, who seemed almost too good to be true, and the execrable Katie Hobbs, who refused even to debate her. In the latest polls, Lake had been up by 11 points. But Hobbs had one advantage: as Arizona’s Secretary of State, she was supervising the election. And so they were neck and neck.
Repeat: Hobbs was supervising the election. How was that even possible? It sounds like a joke. It sounds like something out of Cuba. Why wasn’t something done about this? Why didn’t Lake, and why didn’t the Arizona GOP, insist on it?
