By Jack Phillips
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court in her election case as she claimed that 8,000 unreadable ballots were not configured properly during last year’s midterms.
In an appeal filed (pdf) with the state’s highest court, Ms. Lake alleged that the 8,000 ballots were either “duplicated or counted.” What’s more, they were also unreadable, her team contended.
“The ballot-on-demand printer investigation report by former Chief Justice McGregor (‘the McGregor Report’) found that ‘four printers randomly printed one or a few ‘fit to page’ ballots in the middle of printing a batch of ballots … [n]one of the technical people with whom we spoke could explain how or why that error occurred,’” said the appeal.
An expert for Mrs. Lake, a former Fox affiliate anchor, had “testified this ‘error’ could only result from malware or remote access and resulted in at least 8,000 misconfigured ballots, the vast majority of which were neither duplicated nor counted,” it added.
The defendants in the case, including Maricopa County officials and the Arizona secretary of state’s office, have not issued a public response or filing in the case.
While a number of her legal challenges have been rejected by state courts, Ms. Lake has said she would take her lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed, although the top court has shown little appetite to take up election challenges since late 2020.
“This is, I believe, our best hope to get reform in our elections: my case,” she said in a recent interview. “I believe it’s the greatest election case. We have the truth on our side. We have tons of evidence. Yes, we haven’t had a judge rule in our favor. But it takes a lot of courage to make the right ruling on this case.”
Ms. Lake has never conceded the race to Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, who was sworn into office earlier this year. At the same time, Ms. Lake has signaled in media interviews that she may be exploring a run for the U.S. Senate seat that is currently held by former Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in what could be a three-way race between Ms. Lake, Ms. Sinema, and Rep. Reuben Gallego (D-Ariz.).
Her challenge comes as another court, in a separate, case ordered Ms. Lake’s and former Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem’s teams to pay $122,200 in sanctions. U.S. District Judge John Tuchi in Phoenix wrote that former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz also has to pay about 10 percent of that fine because, according to Mr. Tuchi, Mr. Dershowitz signed off on a number of legal documents in the case.
“Failing to impose meaningful sanctions here might very well encourage others to follow suit by lending their credibility to documents filed in court without facing any real consequence if their certifications prove hollow or incomplete,” Mr. Tuchi wrote in his ruling. “The need for general deterrence is therefore significant.”
Mr. Dershowitz indicated to the Arizona Republic that he would appeal the order.
Ms. Lake and Mr. Finchem sued former Arizona Secretary of State Ms. Hobbs and officials in Maricopa and Pima counties in April 2022, in a bid to change the state and counties’ voting procedures. Mr. Tuchi dismissed the lawsuit in August. The Maricopa County officials named as defendants sought sanctions against Ms. Lake for trying to sow doubts about the then-upcoming 2022 elections.
It comes also as Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County recorder, filed a defamation lawsuit at the end of June against Ms. Lake, saying that he’s faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of “lies” spread by her, including death threats and the loss of friendships.
“Rather than accept political defeat, rather than get a new job, she has sought to undermine confidence in our elections and has mobilized millions of her followers against me,” Mr. Richer said via op-ed in The Arizona Republic.
The suit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names Ms. Lake, her campaign, and her political fundraising group as defendants. In addition to unspecified monetary damages, Mr. Richer is seeking a court order declaring Ms. Lake’s statements false and requiring her to delete them from social media.
The suit claims that Mr. Richer has faced death threats, including one that was prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department, and has spent thousands of dollars on home security. He said he and his wife have altered their routines and law enforcement has stepped up patrols around their home and workplaces.
In response, Ms. Lake wrote on her Twitter page that Mr. Richer’s lawsuit is an attempt to censor her.
“I’m exposing the massive corruption in our elections and this … is suing me,” Lake wrote in a Twitter post. “He wants to silence US … corrupt elections have saddled us with disasters like [President Joe] Biden and Hobbs.”
Reuters and Allen Zhong contributed to this report.
