Republican Kari Lake, who is contesting an election defeat against Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, scored a legal win in Maricopa County on Thursday, when a court granted Lake’s request to have some ballots inspected within the county from Election Day.
Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state, had notable problems during the November 8 election, including printer and tabulation machine-related issues in at least 70 of the county’s 223 polling locations. Lake claims there were tabulator breakdowns at over 59% of the voting centers within the county on Election Day.
The Maricopa County Superior Court of Arizona on Thursday advanced Lake’s request to inspect 50 randomly-selected Election Day cast and spoil-marked “ballot-on-demand” printed ballots from six county voting centers, according to The Daily Caller. Another 50 early cast ballots from six separate county batches will be inspected, too.
“On Election Day, thousands of Republican voters were disenfranchised as a result of Maricopa County election officials’ misconduct in connection with the widespread tabulator or printer failures at 59% of the 223 vote centers in Maricopa County,” the suit from Lake alleges.
The Republican last month filed suit against Maricopa County officials, The Daily Wire reported.
“The filing today was basically just a way for the courts to pressure Maricopa County into giving us public records we have been asking for,” Lake said at the time.
The Republican also blasted county officials over the treatment of “Election Day voters,” which included those printer issues and “three-hour lines.”
“We cannot allow an election like this to stand,” the GOP candidate asserted.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Arizona attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh, a day before Lake’s November suit against county officials, filed a lawsuit in State Superior Court in Maricopa County against election officials, alleging “a host of errors and inaccuracies” during the 2022 election process, The Daily Wire reported.
“Pervasive errors by our election officials resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless Arizonans who had their voices silenced,” Hamadeh said in a statement. “Arizonans deserve to have an election system that is transparent and fair and right now we have neither. Today’s challenge is the only way to provide accountability and restore confidence in our broken election system.”
In a press release, Hamadeh said the 25-page complaint “details a host of errors surrounding the administration of the November 2022 General Election concerning alleged election board misconduct, the tallying of unlawful ballots, and the erroneous counting of votes.”