Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake attends a border security roundtable with law enforcement officials and politicians at the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office on November 04, 2022 in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Kari Lake, the GOP candidate who lost the Arizona governor’s race in November, filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging the certification of the state’s election results and seeking a court order that declares him the winner.
The 70-page lawsuit from Lake, a prominent election denier and Trump ally, alleges several inaccuracies about the election won by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Secretary of State.
The suit names Hobbs and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer as defendants, along with other election officials in Maricopa, claiming their alleged misconduct “invalidated” election results in the state’s most populous county and that his actions led the state “in the wrong way”. naming Hobbs as the winner.
“Lake received the greatest number of votes and is entitled to be declared the winner,” the lawsuit states. “Alternatively, the election should be rerun in Maricopa County to eliminate the effects of maladministration and illegal votes on the number of votes cast as reported by Maricopa County.”
The suit claims that ballot printer and tabulator failures, which Lake said were intentional, “created chaos” on Election Day with “oppressively long lines” that depressed voter turnout and disproportionately cast Republican voters. intimidated, who were more likely to cast a ballot in his favor.
Maricopa County released a report on voting glitches late last month after the state’s Republican attorney general’s office sought answers on widespread voting machine glitches. Election officials urged voters at polling places where the machines had malfunctioned to use other options, including either dropping their ballots in a secure box to be counted later in the day, or returning to vote involved moving to another location.
Lake’s lawsuit seeks a series of court orders, including “setting aside the certified result of the 2022 Arizona Gubernatorial Election and declaring that Kari Lake is the winner of the 2022 Arizona Gubernatorial Election.”
Arizona certified its election results on Monday.
In a statement Friday, Hobbs’ campaign manager denounced Lake’s filing of a “sham lawsuit.”
Hobbs’ campaign manager said “Curry Lake needs attention like a fish needs water – and independent experts from both parties and local elections officials have made it clear that this was a safe, secure and fair election”. “
“The people of Arizona have made their voices heard and elected Katie Hobbs as their governor. No amount of lawsuits will change that, and we will focus on being ready to hit the ground running on the first day of Katie Hobbs’ administration next year.”