Kari Lake Sues Arizona’s Largest County, Seeking to Overturn Her Defeat - The New York Times

Kari Lake, the losing Republican campaigner for politician of Arizona, filed a suit Friday contesting the results of an predetermination that was certified by the authorities this week.

Ms. Lake’s suit came aft she had spent weeks making a bid of nationalist statements and societal media posts aimed astatine sowing uncertainty successful the result of a contention she mislaid by much than 17,000 votes to her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs. That nonaccomplishment was certified successful documents signed connected Monday by Ms. Hobbs, who presently serves arsenic caput of state.

A erstwhile quality anchor, Ms. Lake centered her candidacy connected mendacious conspiratorial claims that the 2020 statesmanlike predetermination had been stolen from Donald J. Trump, who had endorsed her. For the past month, Ms. Lake, her run and different allies person been soliciting Election Day accounts from voters connected societal media and astatine rallies.

“If the process was illegitimate, past truthful are the results,” Ms. Lake said connected Twitter connected Friday evening aft announcing her lawsuit. “Stay tuned, folks.”

Ms. Hobbs called Ms. Lake’s suit “baseless” successful a station of her ain connected Twitter, describing it arsenic the “latest hopeless effort to undermine our ideology and propulsion retired the volition of the voters.”

Ms. Lake sued Ms. Hobbs arsenic good arsenic officials successful Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and is Arizona’s largest county.

The suit claims that the predetermination was corrupted successful Maricopa County and that she should beryllium declared the winner. The 70-page filing relies connected a hodgepodge of allegations, ranging from elector and canvass idiosyncratic accounts to canvass numbers claiming that voters agreed with Ms. Lake connected the election’s mismanagement. Some of what is cited comes not from past month’s predetermination but from the 2020 contest. Other allegations impeach officials of wrongdoing for taking portion successful efforts to effort to tamp down predetermination misinformation.

Fields Moseley, a spokesperson for Maricopa County, said the tribunal strategy was the due spot for campaigns to marque their lawsuit to situation results.

“Maricopa County respects the predetermination contention process and looks guardant to sharing facts astir the medication of the 2022 wide predetermination and our enactment to guarantee each ineligible elector had an accidental to formed their ballot,” Mr. Moseley said.

A fig of those cited arsenic experts successful the suit and 1 of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit — Kurt Olsen — are portion of a escaped election-denial web led by Mike Lindell, the pillow institution entrepreneur who has been pushing conspiracy theories astir predetermination machines since aboriginal 2021. Another Lake lawyer, Bryan Blehm, represented the contractor Cyber Ninjas during the partisan audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 predetermination results past twelvemonth and besides represented supervisors successful Cochise County this twelvemonth successful a suit implicit an effort to transportation retired a hand-counted audit plan.

Ms. Lake’s ineligible enactment came arsenic lawsuits were besides filed Friday by 2 different Arizona Republicans who mislaid their midterm elections: Mark Finchem, who ran for caput of state, and Abe Hamadeh, the lawyer wide candidate. Mr. Hamadeh, who is trailing his hostile by 511 votes successful a contention that is undergoing a recount, was joined successful his suit by the Republican National Committee.

Mr. Hamadeh previously filed suit precocious past period seeking to overturn the election, but the suit was dismissed by a Maricopa County justice for being filed prematurely. His caller suit — filed successful Mohave County, a Republican stronghold wherever helium won 75 percent of the ballot — is much constrictive than Ms. Lake’s, claiming that it is not questioning the election’s validity. But, arsenic with Ms. Lake, Mr. Hamadeh is seeking an bid overturning the predetermination results and declaring him the winner, claiming helium is not alleging wide fraud but alternatively “certain errors and inaccuracies.” On Twitter precocious Friday, Mr. Hamadeh wrote that “Maricopa County faced unprecedented and unacceptable issues connected Election Day.”

Dan Barr, a lawyer for Mr. Hamadeh’s opponent, Kris Mayes, said the suit was “based connected speculation” and contained “no existent facts.” He said helium planned to record motions to disregard it and determination it to Maricopa County aboriginal adjacent week.

Mr. Finchem, 1 of respective caput of authorities candidates astir the state who denied the results of the 2020 statesmanlike race, mislaid by much than 120,000 votes. In his suit, filed successful Maricopa County, Mr. Finchem alleged that Arizona had “failed miserably” to administer a “full, fair, and unafraid election” and asked that the tribunal state the predetermination “annulled” and sanction him the winner.

That suit was filed by Daniel McCauley, who besides represented Cochise County successful its caller failed effort to contradict certification of the predetermination results.

One of Ms. Lake’s lawyers, Mr. Olsen, was besides progressive successful an earlier national suit brought unsuccessfully connected behalf of Ms. Lake and Mr. Finchem. It was filed earlier the Nov. 8 election, but earlier this period a national justice recovered that it made “false, misleading and unsupported factual assertions” astir predetermination systems. The justice said those misleading assertions warranted sanctions. He said helium would find who among the lawyers progressive successful the lawsuit should beryllium sanctioned astatine a aboriginal date.

Mr. Olsen and Ms. Lake’s run did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Finchem did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

Some of the claims successful Ms. Lake’s suit centered connected agelong lines and different problems connected Election Day successful Maricopa County that she alleges led to elector disenfranchisement.

Last month, The New York Times reviewed dozens of accounts from voters, canvass workers and observers posted by Ms. Lake and her allies connected societal media oregon recounted successful nationalist hearings successful the aftermath of the election. The reappraisal recovered that portion they said they had been inconvenienced by the agelong hold lines, astir voters specified that they had yet been capable to formed their ballots.

County officials person said they responded to printer problems astatine astir 30 percent of the county’s voting locations. The printer occupation meant that on-site tabulators — the machines that number ballots — rejected immoderate of those ballots. The region had provided a backup strategy that allowed voters to driblet ballots successful a unafraid container to beryllium processed astatine a antithetic determination alternatively than by the tabulator connected site.

But immoderate voters’ mistrust of the voting systems led them to not privation to usage the ballot boxes. Officials accidental those voters were fixed different options, including voting elsewhere. The concern created agelong lines astatine immoderate of the voting centers, but the region says that each idiosyncratic who wanted to formed a ballot was capable to bash so.