Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo amplified a story from far-right fake news website The Gateway Pundit about election fraud, citing an article alleging that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes may be trying to “hide” a potential “election integrity problem” in Arizona.
The article on the website quotes Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda, who raised suspicion over a delay to a meeting with Fontes about the voter registration system and theorized about how this delay coincides with ballot printing for Maricopa County.
The hyperpartisan Gateway Pundit website has become known for publishing pro-Trump conspiracy theories and fake news, promoting controversial narratives around election fraud, immigration, and other far-right causes. The website, founded by Trump loyalist Jim Hoft, has misidentified mass shooters on multiple occasions, naming innocent people as perpetuators or falsely claiming they are Democrats. The site also published articles pushing baseless allegations of sexual misconduct by former FBI director Robert Mueller and claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were inflating covid death numbers during the pandemic.
The website was driven to bankruptcy after facing multiple defamation lawsuits after publishing false claims about two Georgia election workers and was demonetized by Google in 2021 for publishing misinformation.
In this case the article’s focus on election integrity in Maricopa County came after local election officials discovered a flaw in the state’s voter registration system that misreported proof of citizenship in the state’s driver’s license database, meaning some voters could have disqualified them. Maricopa County Republican Stephen Richer and Fontes both petitioned the state’s Supreme Court to decide how to deal with the 98,000 impacted voters.
Fontes acknowledged that going public on the system flaw would inflame voter fraud claims but hoped that “transparency” in the administration’s response would “keep the public informed.”
Speaking with Republican National Committee chairperson Michael Whatley on Tuesday, Bartiromo pivoted to questioning election integrity in the state.
The anchor began: “The ballots in Maricopa county, we want to get your take on whether or not you’ve got confidence there in Arizona because apparently The Gateway Pundit reported that the GOP chairwoman provided an update to allegations that there’s not going to be a fair election there.”
Whatley dismissed the allegations: “Well, there is going to be a fair election and we’re working very, very hard with the Arizona GOP. I actually had dinner with the chairwoman last night and we’re focusing very hard on making sure that we have the right rules of the road in place before the voting starts.”
He continued: “We filed numerous lawsuits and we’ve been engaged in a lot of discussions with Maricopa and the state of Arizona. We’re going to have observers and lawyers who are going to be in the room whenever a vote is counted, whenever a vote is cast, to make sure that we’re going to be on top of this.”
He added: “We want it to be easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
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