Arizona’s top election official calls for investigation into Kari Lake
Barnini Chakraborty
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Arizona’s Kari Lake could be in hot water after posting pictures of 16 voter signatures on social media as part of her quest to prove her gubernatorial race was rigged.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has asked Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate Lake, who has refused to concede her race against Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ). Posting the voter signatures could amount to a campaign violation and felony.
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The move sets up a legal fight between Lake, one of the country’s loudest election deniers, and Arizona’s newly elected Democratic officials, who have pledged to restore faith in the state’s election system.
Lake, who has gotten former President Donald Trump’s stamp of approval, said in a Jan. 23 tweet that 40,000 ballots didn’t match the voter signatures Arizona had on record. Her self-described “bombshell” tweet included a graphic containing 16 signatures.
“I think all ‘Election Deniers’ out there deserve an apology,” she tweeted.
In his referral, Fontes cited a state law that said records containing voter signatures “shall not be accessible or reproduced by any reason other than the voter” and that any violation would be a felony.
“It is my responsibility to protect Arizona voters. In keeping with my duties, I have referred this matter to the attorney general,” Arizona’s secretary of state told the Washington Post.
Since her November defeat, Lake has leveraged her loss into a multimillion-dollar windfall, collecting $2.5 million from supporters who have backed her bid to overturn the results. Lake lost to Hobbs by 17,000 votes. In fact, nearly every Arizona Republican pushing the agenda that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump lost a statewide race.
Lake has pointed to alleged voting machine irregularities and printing problems as the reasons for her loss, and she has taken her complaints to court.
In December, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson tossed out the Republican candidate’s lawsuit that claimed voter fraud and election worker misconduct. Lake is seeking to overturn the ruling in Arizona’s Court of Appeals. The case will be heard Wednesday. If that effort fails, Lake has pledged to take her case to the Supreme Court.
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“We cannot have the election stand. The judge should declare me the rightful winner. I am the rightful winner, and we should move on and reclaim our government, our state government,” she said.
A detailed analysis by the Arizona Republic found that Lake alienated 33,000 Maricopa County voters who threw their support behind Hobbs in the gubernatorial contest but sided with Republicans in other state races.