Judge Blocks Kari Lake from Examining Ballot Envelopes
A Maricopa County judge has just rejected Kari Lake’s request to examine ballot envelopes from Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election, according to reports.
This latest ruling comes from Lake’s third lawsuit, which began in September 2023.
As part of this lawsuit, Lake has asked for access to ballot envelopes from the roughly 1.3 million early voters in the 2022 gubernatorial election.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah, this past week, rejected this request, The Hill reports.
“Ms. Lake regards the electoral process much like the villagers in the famous fable regarded the goose that laid the golden egg, except that her goose failed to lay the egg she expected,” Hannah wrote.
The judge continued:
“She insists that something must have gone wrong.
“If only she could cut open the electoral process and examine each of its 1.3 million pieces, she says, she would be able to figure out what happened and show that the prize has been there waiting for her all along.”
Hannah went on like this for 12 pages.
Lake responded to Hannah’s ruling in a message that she posted to her “Kari Lake War Room” account on Twitter/X.
In the message, Lake attempted to spin Hannah’s ruling.
Lake wrote:
The judge ruled that while these records are public, the public has no right to see them. We can no longer trust or verify. Corrupt election officials are allowed to handle the peoples’s business in back rooms knowing the judiciary will not hold them accountable.
The judge ruled that while these records are public. The public has no right to see them.
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) November 30, 2023
We can no longer trust or verify.
Corrupt election officials are allowed to handle the peoples’s business in back rooms knowing the judiciary will not hold them accountable. https://t.co/hZV5I7ySBi
Lake followed this up with several other messages to the same effect.
The Examiner reports:
“[T]he judge’s ruling confirmed that the records are not public and use nonpublic information in the voter registration records, such as the end digits of a Social Security number.”
Lake was the Republican candidate in that election, which she ended up losing to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) by a tally of roughly 17,000 votes.
Lake, however, has maintained that she did not lose the election.
Rather, she has alleged that the election was stolen from her.
She has since been battling in the courts in an attempt to use the judiciary to prove it.
Lake’s lawsuits, thus far, have proved unsuccessful.
“In May, a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Lake accusing Maricopa County of not verifying signatures on mail ballots as required by law,” The Washington Examiner reports.
“In February, a court rejected Lake’s lawsuit claiming problems with ballot printers at some polling places.
This latest ruling comes from Lake’s third lawsuit, which began in September 2023.
