The Arizona Supreme Court deferred last month to hear portions of Republican Kari Lake’s appeal regarding the November gubernatorial election. However, the state’s highest court reinstated a claim regarding the Maricopa County signature verification process that had been dismissed by a lower court.

In a newly filed brief with the state Supreme Court, Lake’s legal team reiterated her claim that 35,563 unaccounted-for ballots allegedly appeared in Maricopa County’s final tally for the midterm election in November.

According to the new filing, Hobbs has never contested the 35,563 ballots that are missing:

“Petitioner Kari Lake respectfully opposes Respondents’ request for sanctions for Lake’s statement in her Petition that the Court of Appeals should have considered “the undisputed fact that 35,563 unaccounted-for ballots were added to the total of ballots at a third-party processing facility.”

At least 35,563 Election Day early ballots, for which there is no record of delivery to Runbeck, were added at Runbeck, and this issue was duly raised below prior to Lake filing her Petition for Review, according to the undisputed evidence in the record.

Not only should the Respondents’ request for sanctions be denied, but Lake also respectfully requests that this response be treated as a motion to reconsider the Court’s denial of review on this chain-of-custody issue.

OPPOSITION TO MOTIONS FOR SANCTIONS

The other respondents pursue sanctions and fees pursuant to A.R.S. 12-349 and ARCAP 25, despite the fact that Maricopa did not proceed for sanctions. In this context, both provisions impose sanctions and fees on appeals initiated without substantial justification or primarily for delay or harassment.

Here, the respondents seeking sanctions have not even attempted to show any evidence rebutting Lake’s claims regarding the 35,379 ballots for which Runbeck has no record of receiving. Notably, private actors like Runbeck do not benefit from presumptions favoring government actors. Garcia v. Sedillo, 70 Ariz. 192, 200 (1950) (“the officials in this election were not public officials where we can say that there is a presumption that they acted in good faith”).

Martin Walsh reported for Conservative Brief additional information about Lake’s election campaign on behalf of Arizona voters:

The court also ordered Lake to file a response to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs and Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ motions to sanction Lake for asserting in her brief “the undisputed fact that 35,563 unaccounted for ballots were added to the total number of ballots at a third-party processing facility.”

The justices concluded, “The record does not reflect that 35,563 unaccounted ballots were added to the total count. The motions for sanctions will be considered in due course.”

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

The motion over the alleged 35,563 is critical because it exceeds Hobbs’ roughly 17,000 vote margin of victory. CONTINUE READING…