Arizona Secretary of State and Democrat gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs sent thousands of erroneous ballots to voters less than one month before Election Day.
A screenshot of a Tuesday press release from the secretary of state’s office documenting the error was shared by local Arizona reporter Jen Fifield on Twitter.
“My office found and corrected a database error in concert with the Motor Vehicle Division, which led to less than a quarter of one percent of voters to be registered as Federal-Only voters when they should have been registered as Full Ballot voters,” Hobbs said in a statement.
According to Fifield, that amounts to about 10,000 voters.
In a follow-up tweet on Wednesday, Fifield wrote that the secretary of state’s office “is clarifying that about 6,000 records are being reviewed, with an estimated 1,000 voters affected.”
The Tuesday press release published by Fifield does not appear on Hobbs’ official government website, and the secretary of state’s office did not respond to The Federalist’s inquiries.
Early voting began last week in Arizona, where more than 3 million voters listed on the “Active Early Voting List (AEVL)” will automatically receive ballots in the mail.
Hobbs is overseeing state elections as the incumbent secretary of state while she also sits at the top of the Democratic ticket in the race for governor.
According to RealClearPolitics’ latest aggregate of polls, which are often manipulated to fit media-driven narratives, Hobbs is down 1.6 percent against former television anchor Kari Lake in a statistical dead heat.
On Twitter, Lake called on Hobbs to “recuse yourself as secretary of state,” writing, “Delegate your job to someone who actually knows how to do it.”
Earlier this month, Hobbs and her campaign became the subject of the latest exposé from the investigative group Project Veritas. Hobbs, who has refused to debate Lake ahead of the Nov. 8 contest, was captured on hidden camera complaining about listening to constituents.
“I don’t want to talk politics to anyone who I don’t know,” Hobbs said, describing her reaction to an Uber driver who asked her what she did for work.
Arizona is not the only state to make major election-related errors this cycle.
Earlier this month, Colorado’s Democrat secretary of state “mistakenly” sent “get out the vote” postcards to about 30,000 noncitizens. In Colorado, all registered voters automatically receive ballots in the mail, regardless of whether residents plan to vote by mail or in person.
