Two weeks after filing a complaint requesting data from the 2022 midterm election in Maricopa County, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed another lawsuit against election officials contesting the election results, alleging voter disenfranchisement and suppression. Lake called for a forensic audit of the printer-tabulator problems, an inspection of ballots and voter registration records, including signatures, disqualification of illegal votes, and redoing the election as well as other relief.
Kurt Olsen, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, told The Arizona Sun Times he believes the election anomalies were “intentional since they didn’t test all of their equipment and follow the appropriate processes when problems arose.” He asked, “Why haven’t they done their own forensic audit 30 days later?”
He said Maricopa County officials’ cavalier attitude about the problems and their lack of trying to find out what happened is telling. “Does anybody believe this widespread failure, oh shucks, just happened?” he wondered.
The complaint alleged that the number of illegal votes cast in the election “far exceeds the 17,117 vote margin” between the two candidates, a difference of .67 percent. It said Democrat Katie Hobbs did not receive the highest number of votes due to illegal votes.
Clay Parikh, a cyber expert who has extensive experience performing security tests on voting systems, including the type used in Maricopa County, stated that due to the lack of certification of some of the voting systems, the numerous procedural violations, the widespread failure of the tabulation process, the failure to provide proper instructions to handle the problem after it started, and the incorrect explanations given to the public, the election failures “can only be described as intentional.”
The complaint alleged that “tens of thousands of mail-in and drop box ballots” did not satisfy signature requirements. Three Maricopa County signature verification employees signed affidavits stating that they rejected signatures as mismatching up to 40 percent of the time. However, when they showed up for work the next day, they would see only about 10 percent of those ballots reappear for signature curing. One of the reviewers believes a manager was approving the mismatched ballots instead.
The complaint cited a previous report by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, which found that the early ballot signature verification used by Maricopa County “may be insufficient to guard against abuse.” An analysis found that bad signatures were rejected 14 times more often during the August primary Election in Maricopa County than during the 2020 General Election.
The lawsuit alleged that between 15,603 and 29,257 Republicans were disenfranchised who would have voted for Lake, according to a calculation performed by data analyst Richard Baris of Big Data Poll who surveyed voters about whether they experienced problems on Election Day. Due to the extremely high numbers of Republicans voting in person on election day, those votes were expected to fall 70 percent to Lake, 30 percent to Hobbs.
The complaint stated that 132 of the county’s 223 vote centers, or 59 percent, were affected, far more than the 70 acknowledged by county officials. It went over county election officials minimizing the problem, refusing to acknowledge the full extent of it, such as the long lines or how long it continued into the day, and provided affidavits from voters regarding how long they waited in line. It cited testimony regarding numerous voters who left without voting. The lawsuit also cited commingling the misread ballots, known as “Door 3” ballots, with tabulated ballots.
The complaint stated that “hundreds of thousands” of mail-in ballots lacked a chain of custody. It said over 298,942 ballots delivered to third-party signature verification service Runbeck on Election Day lacked a chain of custody, a class 2 misdemeanor. A Runbeck employee and other observers provided affidavits regarding witnessing this. The Runbeck employee also stated there were at least 9,530 duplicate ballots printed and issued with no chain of custody. Two days after the election, 25,000 more ballots were found which lacked a chain of custody.
The lawsuit cited an investigation into the 2020 election conducted by We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), which found many incidents where Arizonans discovered they had been registered to vote or their voter registration had been changed, unbeknownst to them. WPAA reviewed 12.12 percent of the signatures on ballot envelopes in the Maricopa County 2020 election and found that 18,022 were clearly mismatches, and 19,631 failed the Arizona Secretary of State’s standards. This translated to 156,000 likely mismatches countywide and 165,600 failing the standards, yet the county only rejected 587 ballots for mismatched signatures. WPAA discovered that thousands of those same voters voted again in the 2022 election.
The complaint cited free speech violations, pointing to an information-sharing program that Hobbs, Maricopa County Election officials and Richer participated in to provide information to the Election Misinformation Reporting Portal created by the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency. It showed how Hobbs and other officials got election information censored on Twitter and other social media platforms.
The complaint cited a recent Rasmussen Reports poll which found that 72 percent of voters don’t trust Arizona’s election results.
Olsen told The Sun Times that although it’s impossible to trace back the ballots to the voters at this stage, it’s not required by the law to show that the unlawful votes would have gone to a particular candidate.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson has been assigned to the case. The exhibits to the lawsuit will be available soon at SaveArizonaFund.com, Lake’s team said.
If the inauguration of Hobbs takes place, a court can still change the results, as took place in 1916 in a disputed gubernatorial election. Abe Hamadeh, the Republican candidate for Attorney General who trailed his opponent Kris Mayes by 511 votes, filed a lawsuit on Friday, as did Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State who trailed his opponent Adrian Fontes by 120,208 votes.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Background Photo “Voting Booths” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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[…] lawsuit by the Arizona Sun-Times by Rachel Alexander quotes Kurt Olsen, one of Lake’s attorneys, as saying he believes the election anomalies cited in the legal action were “intentional since they didn’t test all of their equipment and […]
Revote. New election. More republicans monitoring results for honesty. This is wrong. Hobbs needed to recuse herself. Clearly showed complete coverup and deception with lies and decreditation. Shameful. Arizona needs a RE VOTE
[…] Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lengthy lawsuit on Friday challenging the results of the state’s botched election, where […]
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[…] Moreover, cyber expert Clay Parikh, who performs security tests on voting systems like the ones used in Maricopa County, maintained that the county’s widespread tabulation and machine problems “can only be described as intentional,” according to The Arizona Sun Times. […]
[…] Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lengthy lawsuit on Friday challenging the results of the state’s botched election, where […]
I hope she gets heard in court !!!!!!!!! THIS WAS NOT RIGHT
[…] Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lengthy lawsuit on Friday challenging the results of the state's botched election, where […]
People no longer know how to lose graciously -or at all even – anymore; this is what happens when those who haven’t earned it get a damned “participation trophy” & weren’t told “no” throughout life. They expect things to go *their* way & if it doesn’t, they throw a fit & metaphorically hold their breath until they get what they want, no matter what. And this, ladies & gentlemen, could be our future. Time to move.
[…] Alexander of the Arizona Sun Times also reported on Lake’s claim surrounding the vast amount of mail in ballot and inability to match […]
[…] Moreover, cyber expert Clay Parikh, who performs security tests on voting systems like the ones used in Maricopa County, maintained that the county’s widespread tabulation and machine problems “can only be described as intentional,” according to The Arizona Sun Times. […]
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[…] lawsuit, loaded with evidence in support of contesting the election results, revealed the complex multi-step process by which […]
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[…] From the Arizona-Sun Times: […]
Every ballot has a serial number tying it to a voter and their party. Simply take all the Republican and Independent ballots and contact the voters to see if they match.
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[…] Kari Lake has filed another lawsuit against Maricopa County election officials contesting the 2022 election results, alleging voter […]
[…] Kari Lake has filed another lawsuit against Maricopa County election officials contesting the 2022 election results, alleging voter […]
[…] lawsuit, loaded with evidence in support of contesting the election results, revealed the complex multi-step process by which […]
SOLID! Wow! Absolutely impressive! This is so thorough it all but decides the case itself. I mean dotting I’s and crossing T’s indeed. They’ve left nothing out. God bless Kari Lake and these genius lawyers of hers. And most importantly I thank our almighty God for answered prayers and for never leaving us. All glory be to Him.
I guess we can look forward to Kari Lake running for senator in 2 years and contesting that election if she looses………………….She has managed to make Arizona the laughing stock of the whole country…………..Kari Lake accept defeat like Hershel Walker with grace and dignity and go away…………..We have been having uncontested elections for over 200 years can we just get back to the courtesy of accepting defeat
You’re right, Sunshine, everyone should just give up and go home and never fight for what’s right. That’s the “dignified” thing to do. I hope you never get cancer.
It was Katie Hobbs who made AZ a laughingstock. If you’d read the article, you’d know that 72% of the population believes the AZ election was fraudulent, so it appears most of America thinks Hobbs’ cheated. And again, if you’d actually read the article, you’d know the gubernatorial election was contested in 1916; that’s less than 200 years ago.
[…] From the Arizona-Sun Times: […]
Since Democrats are apparently able to outsmart and outmaneuver Republicans so often and so completely in elections, it’s only fair that they should be in charge. (Insert tongue in cheek here.)
This country is in serious trouble. We are now a country who is full of liars and cheaters.
Trump isn’t in office anymore. You’re safe. He’ll be in prison soon
The Arizona GOP is also complicit in these on-going Election Fraud issues. They knew of the problems with the Electronic Voting Machines, the Ballot Harvesting and the AZ Election Recount that is only a 2% Sampling of all cast ballots, (how can the AG conduct a through review of the Election Ballots and issue an Opinion that no fraud occurred when he’s only seeing a sample of 2% of the ballots cast in the Election?).
There is no voter fraud.
EVER!!!!!!
You live in a bubble if you don’t see the fraud.
[…] From the Arizona-Solar Instances: […]
Why did Microsoft block this article as “unsafe content” ?
Unsafe for who?
[…] From the Arizona-Sun Times: […]
Throw it out for the same bs evidence and wasting the courts time!!! Notice that they aren’t contesting the Republican winners on the same ballot!!!
Yeah, because it’s normal for hundreds of Arizona election volunteers and software agencies to sign official court sworn affidavits under threat of arrest and lie.
It isn’t normal. Nothing about Trump his supporters or his lackeys are normal. Normal people accept the truth not propagate a lie.
It isn’t Lake’s job to do this for other candidates. IMO if the losing Dems aren’t suing it’s because they know the cheat didn’t overcome the votes.
[…] From the Arizona-Sun Times: […]
Hopefully this won’t have to go to 70+ court room to be completely disproven.
[…] the Arizona-Sun Moments […]
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We all know it was STOLEN. Let’s see if the judge will do the right thing and follow the law. Not likely but let’s see if he will surprise everyone and show that he’s not as corrupt and compromised as every other judge.
If there was proof show it. I dare you!!!!??
Over 2 years and over 60 lawsuits and nothing!!!!!!!
Get over it. Trumps a loser.
We all know it wasn’t stolen and people have grown tired of the political sore loserism.
Sworn affidavits under the penalty of law by hundreds of poll watchers and poll workers, as well as two software agency workers AREN’T opinions. This is a real problem that goes far before the 2020 election.
All fantasy induced by the biggest sore loser ever, Donald Trump. When nothing happens, you will have to come up with another fantasy to explain why.
At least Kari Lake isn’t taking her defeat sitting down. The election was close, exactly the same as all the others that so called democrats won. Personally, I think the socialists posing as democrats have found a way to cheat their ways into office. The republican leadership would do well to take notice of how Lake refuses to lose and try growing spines so they might start winning for a change. And if would also be a big help if RINO trash like Mitch McConnell would get out of the way and stop voting more than half the time WITH the opposition.
Amen!
It’s all conjecture. Just like 2020.
It’s not conjecture believe me it is for real and there is definitely fraud in Arizona
You have to be a real idiot not to believe there was election fraud.
Voters really paying attention could see the adnormalities!
If we, the left, are SOOOO intelligent and can steal/rig multiple national elections for years (but still lose the congress just so it’s not so obvious what we’re doing) and you righties are SOOOO bad at figuring out how we’re doing it, getting 70 judges to believe it AND figure out how to stop us, well, all I can say is we are clearly WAY smarter than you and are far better suited to running the government. Mic drop.
People rarely find what they are trying not to find
People in control of the machines and running the election certainly are not going to offer or provide anything, nor cooperate. Those people in control of the election in the prejudiced counties/cities have obvious corruption or negligence or likely both. There is no excuse for handing out ballots photocopied and too dim to be read by a tabulator. etc., etc., etc..
You are the conjecture POS.