[web_stories title="false" excerpt="false" author="false" date="false" archive_link="true" archive_link_label="" circle_size="150" sharp_corners="false" image_alignment="left" number_of_columns="1" number_of_stories="5" order="DESC" orderby="post_title" view="circles" /]
A picture that some social media users allege depicts Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs in a “tabulation chamber” the day after election day has gone viral. A woman with dark hair and glasses is seen in the picture strolling through what looks to be a voting tabulation facility.
“On November 9, Katie was captured on video in the tabulation room, according to a post on Instagram on November 11. “Having the candidates in the tabulation room is prohibited.” By November 14, the post had received more than 100 likes.
Read More:
- After Being Re-elected, What Will Newsom Do?
- Mastriano, a Trump Supporter, Has Conceded the Governorship of Pennsylvania
That should automatically disqualify her, one commenter wrote. Hobbs is not visible in a secure location where votes are being counted, though. According to the county and the Hobbs campaign, the picture is a still from a live stream of the Maricopa County vote count, and the woman in it is not Hobbs.
USA TODAY requested a response from the user who shared the post. Check us out on Facebook! Like our page to receive daily updates on our most recent debunkings. Hobbs is not the woman in the photo.
The official Maricopa County Twitter account responded to Hobbs’ assertion in a cheeky yet clear manner.
The tweet from November 10 says, “Not every woman with glasses is Katie Hobbs.” “We’ve got proof that this was a party watcher. Please don’t assume anything about employees just because they wear glasses. In an email to USA TODAY, Sarah Robinson, a representative for the Hobbs campaign, acknowledged that Hobbs was not present. Despite serving as Arizona’s secretary of state at the moment, Hobbs is not involved in the voting process, Robinson added.
The photo was taken from a webcast of Maricopa County’s voting facility that was released online. The photo has a time stamp of Nov. 9, the day after the election, at 10:07 a.m. In order to increase election process transparency, the county now provides streams from its signature verification rooms and early ballot processing rooms.
This campaign was about so much more than just winning an election — it was about the kind of future we want for our great state.
And together, we voted for sanity, for unity, for trusted leadership, for our rights, and for our democracy.
Thank you, Arizona. pic.twitter.com/jhVNtQ2MjV
— Gov-Elect Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) November 19, 2022
Hobbs’ hair is about the same length as the woman in the picture, and both of them are wearing glasses. On Nov. 9, however, Reuters published images of the same woman at the Tabulation and Election Center, pointing out that her hair was darker than Hobbs’s hair in the same day’s images.
As previously reported by USA TODAY, Hobbs has been proclaimed the winner of the close contest against Republican contender Kari Lake. The assertion that Hobbs is seen in the tabulation center in the photo has also been refuted by Reuters, FactCheck.org, and the Associated Press.
Our score is false. According to our investigation, we assess FALSE the assertion that a picture depicts Hobbs in a tabulation room on November 9. According to Maricopa County and the Hobbs campaign, the image was taken from a live stream of the room that was broadcast by the county and does not depict Hobbs.
Associated Press, November 10, Woman in the photo in Arizona voting chamber is not a candidate Hobbs
FactCheck, 11 November Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Department, “Posts Falsely Claim to Show Hobbs in Election Tabulation Room,” retrieved Nov. Feeds of live video.
Arizona Republic, November 12, protesting the voting procedure at the Phoenix Maricopa County Election Center. We appreciate your support of our journalism. Here you can subscribe to our electronic newspaper clone, ad-free app, or the print edition.
A donation from Facebook helps to fund a portion of our fact-checking efforts. Kari Lake, a Republican running for governor of Arizona, speaks at a rally to encourage voters to get out to the polls on November 5, 2022, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Kari Lake is canvassing the state with other GOP candidates with three days to the election.
Comments are closed.