Washington (CNN)A leading Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, continues to put lies about the 2020 presidential election at the center of her campaign -- this week calling it "disqualifying" and "sickening" for a rival candidate not to say that the election was stolen, though it wasn't stolen.
Lake's strong performance in the Republican primary so far means that an aggressively dishonest promoter of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election could potentially have a prominent role in the 2024 presidential election in a key swing state.
Lake said at a televised Republican debate on Wednesday that she would not have certified Joe Biden's victory in Arizona, which was certified by term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey as required by law. Lake, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, falsely said of Biden: "He lost the election, and he shouldn't be in the White House."
The Arizona governor's certification of presidential results "traditionally has been, and should be, uneventful," Joshua Sellers, an expert on election law and an Arizona State University associate professor of law, said in an email on Friday -- a necessary but "perfunctory" act confirming the result of the state's popular vote. Sellers said "it would be deeply disruptive for a Governor to impede certification based solely on her own views or disappointment about a presidential election result."
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the state's top elections official,...
Misinformation about hantavirus has run rampant on social media, with online users reviving viral COVID-19 theories to spread fake news about the outbreak. From conspiracy theories claiming that...