The fate of Arizona’s Republicans hangs in the balance as the race for governor continues after the election has been called.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, was declared to have beaten Republican rival Kari Lake by a margin of around 17,000 votes on November 8. As election day and subsequent days were hampered by malfunctions and delays that may have skewed the results, Lake did not hesitate to complain to the outcome.

Lake filed a lawsuit to demonstrate that she had enough votes to win, citing her complaints as well as the lack of integrity in the Arizona election system.

In her complaint filed last week, Lake’s attorneys contended that significant ballot printer and tabulator problems on Election Day that affected 131 polling places (59 percent of the total) lowered the candidate’s vote totals. And, as the world watched online, lengthy queues grew at various Maricopa County venues owing to failures.

Here is the problem w/ what happened in Maricopa County on Election Day. This is Anthem, north of Phoenix at about 1:15 pm. Ruby red district of about 30K people. Only one polling location. Ballot tabulators not working in the morning. 2 hr wait to vote midday and still at 6 pm. pic.twitter.com/CY35yQWwq5

— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) November 14, 2022

Clearly, Lake’s team is interested in determining if carelessness or wrongdoing had a role in the failure of so many voting machines on Election Day, and they are attempting to gain a deeper understanding of the cause. According to Maricopa County, 71 sites were affected, which is nearly one-third of all locations. Western Journal says that the county stated a setting on the in question ballot printers prevented the ballot tabulators from being able to read the ballots.

As Lake’s arguments were being heard in court, witnesses described the failures, delays, and redirection of voters to alternative polling locations.

And now, Lake’s lawsuit will have even more evidence to support their case against the state’s defective voting system. Friday, the court handling Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s legal challenge of November’s election gave her team access to check votes cast.

Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ordered Maricopa County to allow Lake’s attorneys to review 50 randomly selected “ballot-on-demand” printed votes cast on Election Day, 50 randomly selected early ballots cast in the race, and 50 randomly picked ballots marked “spoiled” on Election Day. Tuesday is scheduled for the inspection.

Lake’s lawsuit requests a declaration that she won the gubernatorial election or a rerun of the election in Maricopa County, in addition to establishing that Arizona’s election was flawed. In dispute are over 20,000 ballots that have already been proclaimed in court. Since Lake was claimed to have lost by 17,000 votes, if those ballots were determined to be invalid, she would have won the election.

Lake said that because Republicans outvoted Democrats three to one on Election Day, her supporters were subjected to widespread vote suppression.

Monday, Lake told Real America’s Voice presenter Charlie Kirk, “Seventy-five percent of people voting on Election Day were voting for me. And then you basically shut down or make it impossible to vote or very difficult to vote at roughly 60 percent of the locations to vote, you’re going to cut into our lead. This is the disenfranchisement of voters in Arizona.”

.@KariLake: "The Board of Supervisors report is trying to diminish & downplay the level of ineptitude & malfeasance on Election Day. We have observers who have testified to what they saw, witnessed, and did on Election Day… and it goes against what the BOS are saying." pic.twitter.com/WvZlp273t3

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 12, 2022

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

Rather than be open to fixing any flawed election problems, the county is desperately trying to stop the lawsuit and to suppress any data that will come out if the lawsuit continues. KPNX-TV reported that Maricopa County lawyers will make their case Monday before Thompson to try to dismiss Lake’s lawsuit. “If the judge doesn’t dismiss the suit, there will be a two-day hearing next Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 21 and 22.,” the news outlet added.

The verdict under law must be rendered quickly. as Arizona is waiting to see who will fill the office of governor. “Under state law, the judge must then decide within five days – no later than Tuesday, Dec. 27 – whether to confirm Hobbs as the winner or toss out her victory,” KPNX-TV said. CONTINUE READING…