Battleground beginnings

With the 2024 presidential contest hinging on a few thousand votes in roughly seven states, every ballot, and who is casting them, is facing intense scrutiny. Besides a handful of national rules governing the voting process, each state is allowed a certain amount of leeway to conduct elections the way it sees fit. Those differing processes were a bone of contention for former President Donald Trump and some Republicans in 2020 when the pace of results being published appeared to snatch victories out from under them. 

Similar complaints played out two years later. In Arizona, in particular, Senate candidate Kari Lake lost her contest with now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) to be the state’s next governor. Lake has refused to acknowledge her defeat, echoing Trump’s “stolen election” rhetoric and casting doubt on the integrity of the state’s system.