Kari Lake Takes Election Fight to Arizona Supreme Court

Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake during her election night event at The Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Kari Lake (R-Ariz.) has filed a lawsuit in the Arizona Supreme Court, seeking to review her challenge against the results of the 2022 state governor’s race which according to official results was won by Democrat Katie Hobbs.

“We filed our Historic Election Integrity case with the Arizona Supreme Court. Pray for our Attorneys. Pray for the Judges. Pray for Justice. Pray for America,” Lake said in a March 2 tweet. In a filing on Wednesday, her lawyers alleged that some of the ballot printers in Maricopa County, home to over 60 percent of state voters, had faced problems during the election.

The lawyers stated that many Republican voters were disenfranchised following the chaos created by technical issues at certain polling sites while also pointing to a break in the chain of custody for ballots at an off-site facility.

Following a two-day trial in December, a Maricopa County judge dismissed Lake’s lawsuit citing a lack of evidence. Lake then appealed the case with the Arizona Court of Appeals. In mid-February, the appeals court struck down the challenge as well.

The three-judge panel of the appeals court had pointed out that Lake’s arguments only highlight “Election Day difficulties.”

“Her request for relief fails because the evidence presented to the superior court ultimately supports the court’s conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results.”

Lake lost to Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes. Hobbs went on to assume the office as Governor on Jan. 2.

COC and L&A Testing Issues

The lawsuit filed at the Arizona Supreme Court argued that the Court of Appeals’ judgment denying Lake’s appeal essentially ratified Maricopa County officials’ decision to ignore the state’s chain-of-custody (COC) rules for ballots, logic and accuracy testing (L&A testing) requirements that are established in Arizona’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM), and the Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS).

Arizona law “unambiguously” mandates election officials to count the number of ballots and note down the number on the retrieval form when the container holding the ballots is opened, the lawsuit states.

In its appellate brief, Maricopa County “admitted” that it did not follow these COC procedures with regard to drop-box ballots retrieved on Election Day (EDDB ballots), according to Lake’s attorneys. Instead of counting ballots when the containers were opened at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in compliance with EPM rules, the EDDB ballots were simply “sorted and placed in mail trays,” the county stated according to the lawsuit.

State laws mandate that counties carry out L&A testing on all “deployable voting equipment” to make sure that the equipment and programs will “correctly count the votes cast for all offices and on all measures,” the lawsuit said, citing an Arizona law. However, Maricopa County only performed “stress testing” which is not L&A testing the complaint alleges.

Signature Verification Issues, Equal Protection Violation

Lake also alleged that Maricopa County violated signature verification procedures and accepted illegal ballots with signature mismatches. The appeals court panel “erred in dismissing” this claim by “misconstruing the alleged violation,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Lake’s claim is not that the signature verification procedures are unlawful. Rather, Lake challenges Maricopa’s misconduct in failing to follow signature verification procedures in the 2022 election.”

The lawsuit cited a judgment that ruled that “without the proper signature of a registered voter on the outside, an absentee ballot is void and may not be counted.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the Equal Protection and Due Process clause was violated on Election Day. “Tabulator problems burdened Republican Election-Day voters more than 15 standard deviations more than they burdened non-Republican Election-Day voters.”

Protecting Public Trust

“The consequences of Maricopa’s violations are stark,” the lawsuit states. The appeals court judgment contradicts the State Supreme Court’s own admonition that “election statutes are mandatory, not ‘advisory,’ or else they would not be law at all.”

Pointing out that public trust in elections is at an “all-time low,” the lawsuit noted that decisions like the appeal court judgment will only serve to “further erode that trust.”

“The Legislature did not intend election officials to have this degree of insulation. ’All elections shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage’ (Arizona Constitution, Article 2, Section 21).”

“The undisputed facts, and the violations of law, show that Maricopa’s 2022 election must be set aside. Trust must be restored. This Court should grant review to correct this manifest error.”

All six justices in the Arizona Supreme Court—Robert Brutinel, Ann Timmer, Clint Bolick, James P. Beene, John Lopez IV, Kathryn Hackett King, and Bill Montgomery—lean Republican.

While Brutinel and Timmer were appointed during the term of Republican Governor Janice Kay Brewer, the remaining four justices were appointed by Republican Governor Doug Ducey.