Judge dismisses 8 of 10 counts in Kari Lake’s election lawsuit

PHOENIX — A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Monday dismissed eight of the 10 counts in Kari Lake’s election-challenging lawsuit following her loss to Katie Hobbs in last month’s gubernatorial contest.

Lake filed the lawsuit against Hobbs and other Maricopa County election officials last week.

Count 2 — “Illegal Tabulator Configurations” — and Count 4 — “Ballot Chain of Custody” — were not dismissed.

In Count 2, Lake alleges that the ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers that malfunctioned on election day were not certified and “have vulnerabilities that render them susceptible to hacking.” She also alleges that the BOD printers malfunctioned because of an “intentional action.”

In Count 4, Lake argues that the ability of employees of the county’s ballot contractor to add ballots of family members and the lack of an Inbound Receipt of Delivery form both constitute misconduct.

Judge Peter A. Thompson also denied Lake’s motion to expedite discovery and motions by Hobbs and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer to quash subpoenas.

In the lawsuit, Lake claims that “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election in Maricopa County” and between 15,603 and 29,257 Republican voters were disenfranchised as a result of tabulator or printer failures experienced at polling locations on election day.

Thompson will allow a representative for Lake to inspect signatures on several hundred ballots Tuesday morning, including 50 that were not counted because they were spoiled. If it is determined that the signatures match or were wrongfully included in the final vote total, both sides must present a witness list.

The judge also ordered that the parties shall meet and confer to provide the Court with the list of witnesses to be called by each party together with anticipated time required for direct, cross,
and re-direct examinations as well as opening statements and closing arguments by noon on Tuesday.

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