PHOENIX — Kari Lake, the former television anchor who has used her public platform to spread disinformation, has lost yet another legal challenge related to the 2022 election.
The Republican candidate was defeated by Democrat Katie Hobbs in the 2022 governor’s contest. Among several legal challenges, Lake filed a public records lawsuit against Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer to obtain access to early mail-in ballot return envelopes.
Lake’s attorney wanted to review signatures of voters on the envelopes, arguing they had the right to examine signatures of voters to ensure election integrity. The county had previously demonstrated in court that employees followed the law regarding signature curing and verification. No court found anomalies or inaccuracies that would have changed the outcome of the election.
In this latest ruling, Superior Court Judge John Hannah wrote it was in the state’s best interest not to release the signatures on envelopes in order to prevent future harassment of voters and potential disenfranchisement. He said releasing 1.3 million ballot affidavit envelopes signed by voters would undermine the process of verifying those voters’ ballots in future elections.
“It would create a significant risk of widespread voter fraud where none now exists,” Hannah wrote.
Hannah compared Lake’s legal odyssey to villagers in a fable searching for the goose that laid the golden egg, “except that her goose failed to lay the egg she expected,” Hannah wrote.
“She insists that something must have gone wrong. If only she could cut open the electoral process and examine each of its 1.3 million pieces, she says, she would be able to figure out what happened and show that the prize has been there waiting for her all along.”
If the prize is not found, Lake believes the mere act of disassembly will strengthen everyone’s confidence in elections, Hannah wrote.
He then added: This view misses the big picture of democratic self-governance. (It) by its nature requires counting votes, to make sure as best as we can that the right egg comes out, but it is about much more than that. At the hearing, one of the citizen witnesses who got a visit from the election skeptics took a crack at expressing what it means to her. She shared that her father, a Second World War veteran, had ‘always instilled in my sister and I the importance… the value of living in this country, of living in a democracy, of having the opportunity and the responsibility to vote, to believe that our vote counted…. And that it in fact involves thoughtfulness and, in fact, privacy…”
Hannah wrote the State of Arizona has a compelling interest in protecting voters from confusion and undue influence. He said privacy is a key safeguard of elections.
“The broad right of electoral participation outweighs the narrow interests of those who would continue to pick at the machinery of democracy.”
In previous election-related cases, judges have ruled against Lake in two trials and fined Lake’s attorneys $2,000 and $122,000 respectively for making “false” and “frivolous” claims.
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