Kari Lake, the Republican candidate who lost the Arizona gubernatorial race, has formally contested her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs and asked a court to set aside the certified election results from the state’s most populous county and the declare the winner, or rerun gubernatorial election in that county.
The lawsuit filed late Friday by Lake focuses on the long lines and other difficulties people experienced voting on Election Day in Maricopa County. The challenge filed in Maricopa County Superior Court also alleges that hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally deposited, but there is no evidence of that.
Lake has refused to acknowledge that he lost to Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.
Lake, who is backed by Donald Trump, has bombarded Maricopa County with complaints, largely related to a problem with printers at some polling places that caused ballots to be printed with markings that were too light to read. for tabs.
Lines built up at some polling places, fueling Republican suspicions that some supporters were unable to vote, although there is no evidence that this affected the outcome. County officials say everyone was able to vote and all legal ballots were counted.
Lake sued Maricopa County officials and Hobbs in her current role as Arizona secretary of state.
Sophia Solis, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office, said Lake’s lawsuit was under review, but she had no further comment.
Maricopa County spokesman Jason Berry declined to comment on Lake’s request to overturn the county’s election results in the gubernatorial race. But he said the county “respects the election challenge process and looks forward to sharing the facts about the administration of the 2022 general election and about our work to make sure every legal voter has an opportunity to cast their ballot.”
Lake’s lawsuit says Republicans were disproportionately affected by the troubles in Maricopa County because they outvoted Democrats on Election Day by a ratio of 3 to 1. Republican Party leaders had urged their supporters to wait until Election Day to vote.