As Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake continues with her lawsuit against Arizona’s election vote, remarks and figures are being disclosed.
The complaint, which was filed on Friday, asserts that there was a disparity of around 25,000 votes between the total number of ballots Maricopa County first stated had been cast in the midterm elections on November 8 and the final number it reported later that week. In their state court brief, Lake’s attorneys highlighted the disparity as a ballot chain of custody issue.
“Highlighting the chain of custody failures … is the fact that two days after Election Day was completed Maricopa County found more than 25,000 additional ballots, whereas properly followed chain of custody procedures would require Maricopa County election officials to know the exact number of ballots submitted by the day after Election, November 9, 2022,” the candidate’s legal team said.
“Specifically, Maricopa County’s public statements concerning remaining ballots to be counted on November 9, 2022, and November 10, 2022, show an increase of approximately 25,000 votes with no explanation of why the number of remaining ballots could increase,” they noted.
The petition alleges that on November 9, after the county’s voting center had closed for the day, the Maricopa County recorder declared that “275,000+” mail-in ballots (referred to as EV ballots in the filing) had been sorted for scanning and signature verification. According to Lake’s court filing, the next day, Maricopa County election officer Celia Nabor called the county’s contractor Runbeck Election Services, which stated that it scanned 298,000 votes.
“This unexplained increase in EV ballots was also reflected on the Department of State website between November 9 and November 10. On November 9th, Maricopa County reported to the AZ Department of State that it had counted 1,136,849 ballots and had 407,664 ballots left to be tabulated. That is a total of 1,544,513 ballots,” Lake’s lawyers said. “By November 11, 2022 Maricopa County reported and the Department of State published that the Maricopa had counted 1,290,669 ballots and had 274,385 ballots left to tabulate, which is a total of 1,565,554 ballots.”
So the difference between Nov. 9 and Nov. 11 was 21,041 votes.
This chart from @KariLake's lawsuit shows the total number of ballots cast in midterms, according to Maricopa County, increased by over 21K from the day after the election to the Friday of that week.
The margin of victory in the governor's race was 17K. pic.twitter.com/alvq2Xh0ik
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) December 13, 2022
Significant because it exceeds Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ winning margin of little over 17,000 votes over Lake in the campaign.
“The shifting numbers of ballots evidence Maricopa County’s failure to account for EV ballots and failure to maintain security and chain of custody for the ballots as required by Arizona Law,” Lake’s team said.
The Western Journal contacted the county about the disparity, and county spokesperson Jason Berry answered via email, “The court system is the proper place for campaigns challenging the results to make their case. Maricopa County respects the election contest process and looks forward to sharing facts about the administration of the 2022 General Election and our work to ensure every legal voter had an opportunity to cast their ballot.”
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
Berry’s statement is interesting because U.S. District Judge John Tuchi of the District of Arizona rejected a Lake lawsuit earlier this year and then moved to fine her attorneys and those of Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem last week. CONTINUE READING…