Сonspiracy game

Donald Trump on Wednesday dragged Arizona Republican Kari Lake into a conspiracy laden with talk of the integrity of the state's election results.

A few weeks ago, however, Lake refuted one of the former president's claims.

Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform that there were a large number of voting machines in "Republican areas" of Arizona that were "SLAMmed" on election day, part of a conspiracy theory that Lake tweeted earlier this week.

The claim stems from the fact that Trump-backed Lake did not concede despite her Democratic opponent Kathleen Hobbs winning the state gubernatorial race earlier this month.

Trump later tried to sell Lake's conspiracy theory to his supporters, putting the presidential candidate at the centre of his unsubstantiated claim.

"Voters left the voting lines in utter despair and could not return. When the 'mechanics' came to fix the machines, things got even worse. Kari Lake couldn't even vote in her own district," Trump wrote.

He continued: "Election fraud PREVENT the election or declare Kari Blake Mastersabe Hamadeh the winner. React quickly!!!"

However, Trump's claim that Lake could not vote in her district has been refuted by the candidate herself, who has already said she went to another district and had no problems.

"We went from a Republican area to vote, we went right into the heart of liberal Phoenix to vote because we wanted to make sure we had good cars," Lake said on election day.

Polling stations in Maricopa County, Arizona ran into printing problems that stopped some ballots from being counted. But those problems weren't limited to areas where Republicans or Democrats are more likely to vote, the Associated Press notes.

Voters could try another tab in seats, cancel and go elsewhere to vote, or put their ballots in a box that was later taken to the Maricopa County Tabulation Center and counted there.