Grand Canyon Times

Journalist Glenn Greenwald took to Twitter to criticize Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs (D-AZ), saying she should have recused herself from overseeing the disputed governor's election between herself and Republican candidate Kari Lake.

“Please watch this fiery video and remember that Katie Hobbs is now overseeing an extremely disputed and tight election in Arizona, while at the same time being a candidate for governor in what appears to be a very close race, all because she refused requests to recuse herself,” Greenwald tweeted on Nov. 12.

Greenwald, the cofounder of The Intercept, was commenting on Katie Hobbs’ refusal to recuse herself from overseeing her own election. Greenwald predicted that the contested gubernatorial race in Arizona would be very close. Since Greenwald’s tweet, Hobbs has been declared the winner and governor-elect, but many analysts say no one who is running for office should oversee an election in which they are a candidate.

The Center Square quotes Hobbs as saying, before the election, that she would responsibly oversee Arizona's elections as secretary of state, including the one for governor. Lake requested that Hobbs recuse herself from overseeing the governor's election, but Hobbs declined.

“She’s running her office with a great incompetency and maybe maladministration. The ethical thing would be for her to recuse herself," Lake said, according to The Center Square. "I don’t think she’s going to do it. And that’s a problem."

In his Twitter post, Greenwald claimed the Arizona governor’s race was “extremely disputed" and asked readers to watch a video from 2018, where former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder criticized then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R-GA), who was running for governor against Stacey Abrams (D-GA), for also overseeing his own election. 

“That’s like LeBron James suiting up for the Lakers and telling everybody in the game that he wants to referee the game. That’s just not right," Holder said in the video.

Kemp received similar criticism, as he also declined to recuse himself from an election in which he was a candidate, after which Abrams doubted the results. It took more than a week to count all votes in Arizona, but AP News and major media networks have called the race for Hobbs.  

The editorial board of the Bangor Daily News argued that secretaries of state should not be allowed to oversee their own elections in any regard.

“The appearance of a conflict of interest can be just as detrimental to voter confidence as an actual one, and the apparent conflict of interest here is painfully obvious,” the board said, adding that the same could be said for Kemp in 2018.

Former President and Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter wrote a letter to Kemp asking that he recuse himself because of “factors that would threaten voter confidence," adding, “you are now overseeing the election in which you are a candidate.”

The BDN editorial board agrees with Carter, that in any situation where the top election official oversees their own election results, that undermines voter confidence and is generally “questionable.” They say it is not a partisan issue but rather an “establishment” issue.