A lawsuit filed last week by Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake exposed Maricopa County’s election process flaws.
QUICK FACTS:
- Last Friday, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lawsuit contesting the results in the recent midterm elections, revealing Maricopa County’s reliance on a third-party vendor.
- The 70-page complaint named Democratic gubernatorial opponent Katie Hobbs Arizona’s Secretary of State who certified the election in her own favor earlier this month.
- The lawsuit revealed the process by which ballots returned by the post office or at a ballot drop box are sorted for future tabulation and the involvement of a third-party vendor, a company called Runbeck Election Services.
- According to the lawsuit, there are no legal forms required to document the handling process for mail-in ballots delivered to Runbeck.
- Runbeck then reportedly scans the envelopes containing the voter’s signature, claiming legally that they are the actual voter of the ballot.
- The unopened ballots are then stored at the company’s facility, waiting for elections department staff to review the signatures.
ARIZONA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE KARI LAKE ON MIDTERM ELECTION DISCREPANCIES:
“We the People will not forget, God will not forget, and I will not quit,” Lake said.
BACKGROUND:
- After Maricopa County certified its election on November 28th, Lake said Maricopa County “just couldn’t wait to certify their botched election,” during which “half of Election Day voting centers were inoperable.”
- “Maricopa County where it took two weeks to count [votes] is the poster child for broken, botched elections,” Lake continued.
- American Faith reported at the time that Katie Hobbs threatened to sue Cochise County over their refusal to certify its midterm election results.
- While it was originally estimated that 20% of Maricopa tabulators malfunctioned, an updated report shows that 48% of printers and tabulators malfunctioned.
- Mohave County, Arizona delayed certifying midterm results as a “political statement” in standing in “solidarity with other counties,” also refusing to certify election results.
