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Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is continuing the fight for election integrity and recently scored a major victory.
In her lawsuit against the Democrat gubernatorial candidate, governor-elect Katie Hobbs, Lake contends that the election was teeming with critical problems that affected the outcome of the election.
Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson of Maricopa County has approved three of the four demands in the lawsuit to examine random ballots from the county.
In the 70-page lawsuit filed against Arizona’s top state election officials by Lake, her lawyers argue that “there were thousands of illegal votes and ‘violations’ in the election process that resulted in a victory for Hobbs.”
Lake’s campaign tweeted, “Our lawsuit isn’t based on conspiracy or wild speculation. We have laid out a very clear theory about statutory violations and a broken chain of custody. These ballots deserve close scrutiny and we’re delighted we have been granted it.”
According to the ruling, Lake’s legal team can inspect 50 random ballots from six Maricopa County polling stations that were cast on Election Day in November.
Just the News reported on Friday that election officials from the county “couldn’t reconcile a disparity of 16,000 votes”
“Recently disclosed internal communications between top election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County in the immediate aftermath of Election Day reveal that they struggled to reconcile a discrepancy of almost 16,000 in outstanding ballot totals,” according to Just the News.
“Prior to a Maricopa County press conference with Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer on Nov. 10, Richer sent an email to Elections Director Scott Jarrett, Gates and others about a significant discrepancy between the county’s estimated remaining ballot totals and the number reported by the secretary of state’s office,” the report added.
“Unable to currently reconcile SOS listing with our estimates from yesterday,” Richer wrote.
Maricopa County estimated having 392,000 ballots left to be counted, while the secretary of state’s website said there were 407,664 ballots left.
“So there’s a 15,000 difference somewhere,” Richer said, missing the mark, as the discrepancy cited was closer to 16,000.
“Maricopa County was plagued by numerous issues with ballot machines at many of its vote centers on Election Day, resulting in delays and long lines,” the report noted.
In another Arizona county, there were similar problems related to the election. Pinal County Supervisor, Republican Kevin Cavanaugh, had voiced his concerns to county management at board meetings over the past year.
Kari Lake quoted Cavanaugh as saying “I think next time, we’ll have a solid election.” Lake is not about to wait until “next time.” She wants the problems looked at immediately.
While Lake has taken Cavanaugh’s statement negatively, he says that if she looked at the whole video of what he was saying, she would see that his statements were “consistent with her goal of fixing elections.”
The board of supervisors in Pinal County is expected to act in an effort to regain voters’ trust by making the necessary changes to their elections.
Arizona has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of Arizonans and Americans across the nation alike.
