Kari Lake, who ran for governor of Arizona last year as a Republican, was one of the few GOP candidates in 2022 who refused to accept defeat.
Even most of the others who had run on Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” narrative, such as Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano, ultimately conceded in their own races, but Lake never did, making various claims, both in court and the media, in the months since that the election was “stolen” from her after she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by 17,000 votes.
Lake appears more willing than even most Trump-adjacent Republicans to say things that are outright untrue. She has signed on to a conspiracy theory that Gov. Hobbs and other Democratic officials in Arizona have been bribed by drug cartels, as well as the extremely dodgy claim that a young girl was found at the border with the DNA of 67 men inside her.
And that has continued with her latest claim about the gubernatorial election.
Claim of New Evidence
Per Newsweek, Lake claims she has “new evidence” in the case.
“Our new evidence shows that Maricopa County falsely certified that it had passed Logic & Accuracy testing & then secretly tested all of the tabulators on three different days. 260 of the tabulators failed during these tests. Maricopa County USED them on Election Day anyway,” Lake claimed on Twitter.
The AP describes a separate claim as the last major claim by Lake involving the election, this one related to signature-verification procedures. However, Hobbs has asked that the suit be thrown out of court.
Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts wrote Monday that the latest bombshell from Lake “looks like another dud.”
“Lake is now claiming the county didn’t really test its tabulators for logic and accuracy, as required by law, on Oct. 11,” Roberts writes. “Instead, as the BOMBSHELL goes, the county secretly tested the machines on three days the following week, wherein they learned that 260 of the tabulators produced error codes when ballots were inserted.”
Lake is claiming that Maricopa County officials intentionally sabotaged the tabulation machines, leading to thousands of votes for Lake not being counted.
Thrown Out?
County officials call Lake’s claims “laughable,” in part because the planned testing not only took place when it was supposed to but it was live-streamed and also observed and certified by officials of both parties.
“Plaintiff’s own expert acknowledged that a ballot that was unable to be read at the vote center could be deposited by a voter, duplicated by a bipartisan board onto a readable ballot, and — in the final analysis — counted,” the report said. “It is worth repeating that ballots that could not be read by the tabulator immediately because of printer settings — or anything else — could be deposited in Door 3 of the tabulator and counted later after duplication by a bipartisan adjudication board.”
It would appear highly unlikely that Lake’s latest election challenge will be any more successful than her last several. But she continues to have a political future, including speculation that she may run for the U.S. Senate in 2024.
According to Axios, Lake recently met with six Republican senators. The meetings, last Thursday, were with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Steve Daines (R-MT). Daines is the head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
Lake would be running for the seat currently held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent last year. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is also running for the seat, as a Democrat.
“She’s [Sinema] said a couple of things that were bold and I admire any time that you see a politician do something bold, but in my opinion, that shouldn’t be one or two things over the course of six years, you should be doing bold things for your constituents every single day,” Lake told Axios.
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Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
