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Ariz. Supreme Court Agrees to Expedite Kari Lake’s 2022 Election Lawsuit

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


The Arizona Supreme Court has granted a request for an expedited hearing regarding a lawsuit filed by Kari Lake, a Republican candidate for governor in 2022. Lake claims that election improprieties prevented her from winning the election. She filed a motion to expedite the case, citing the need for “expeditious action to resolve these issues to safeguard Arizona voters’ right to free and equal elections.”

She argued that the Maricopa County Superior Court and Arizona Court of appeals disregarded the evidence, “ignored this Court’s precedents for reviewing election contests and ratified Maricopa officials’ decision to ignore Arizona’s ballot chain-of-custody (“COC”) and logic and accuracy testing (“L&A testing”) requirements set forth in Arizona’s Election Procedures Manual (“EPM”), and A.R.S. §§16-621(E), 16-449, 16-452(C).”

“The court of appeals’ Opinion denying petitioner Kari Lake’s appeal ruled that Arizona election laws don’t matter,” the filing stated.

The state’s highest court issued its ruling on Thursday, setting a March 21 date to consider whether to accept Lake’s new petition. The court ordered defendants to issue responses by March 13.

Last month, the appeals court ruled that voters were able to cast their ballots and votes were counted properly in Arizona during November’s midterm elections.

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“Lake argues that the superior court erred by dismissing her claims asserting equal protection and due process violations. Her arguments fail, however, because these claims were expressly premised on an allegation of official misconduct in the form of interference with on-site tabulators — the same alleged misconduct as in Lake’s printer/tabulator claim,” the ruling stated, upholding Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ victory.

“Because these claims were duplicative of a claim that Lake unsuccessfully pursued at trial, the superior court did not err by dismissing them. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the superior court’s ruling confirming Hobbs’s election as governor. We deny Hobbs’s request for an award of attorney’s fees on appeal because she offered no substantive basis for the award,” the appeals court noted further.

“Evidence ultimately supports the conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies the election results,” it said.

Last month as well, Lake gave UK presenter Piers Morgan all he could handle in a fiery interview regarding her refusal to concede the 2022 election to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

“I don’t mind your fighting spirit,” the host said to her during an episode of his talk show, Piers Morgan Uncensored.

“But it does come a point when for the future of democracy, you and Donald Trump have to accept at some point you lost an election,” he said.

“Otherwise, the entire system collapses,” he said. “If your simple response to losing is always, ‘we didn’t lose, we won,’ then democracy dies.”

But Lake said she will continue her fight.

“I’m fighting for the people of Arizona,” the former candidate said.

“In Arizona, I can’t walk 10 feet without an Arizonan saying, ‘I voted for you, everybody I know voted for you, our ballot was rejected on Election Day, please keep fighting for us,” she said before shredding Morgan for his opinion.

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“I don’t mean any offense to you, but I frankly don’t give a damn what you think,” she said. “I’m fighting for the people of Arizona.”

The host asked her when she would accept that she was defeated by Gov. Hobbs.

“We are taking [the lawsuit] to the [Arizona] Supreme Court,” she said.

The host asked her if she is considering a campaign for the United States Senate, and she did not say she wouldn’t.

“It is in the back of my mind, but my No. 1 priority is my case,” she said. “And I want to see my case through.”

During a subsequent interview with Charlie Kirk on his Real America’s Voice show, Lake hinted that she could run for the Senate in the 2024 election if she doesn’t get a “decent ruling” in her lawsuit for the Arizona gubernatorial election.

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