A Superior Court Judge in Maricopa County, Arizona, has refused to dismiss a demand made by Kari Lake, the former Republican candidate for governor, seeking access to ballot affidavit envelopes, according to a report from Just the News.
Lake’s request has been contested by Maricopa County, which holds that the ballot affidavit signatures fall under voter registration records, hence confidential by state law, unless specific exceptions apply.
However, according to the county’s legal team, Lake does not qualify for these exceptions.
John Hannah, the presiding judge, refuted the county’s argument.
Although acknowledging that county recorders frequently incorporate ballot affidavit envelopes into voter registration records, he made it clear this is not mandated by law.
On Monday, Hannah declared, “the court is not required to defer to the elections officials in how they have historically interpreted” the law.
Despite stating that he had “no quarrel” with the interpretation, Hannah disagreed with it.
He stressed that the ballot affidavit is not necessarily a voter registration record.
“I am not convinced that the ballot affidavit is a voter registration record,” said Hannah as reported by the Arizona Capitol Times. “It is a record from which the election officials derive information that becomes part of the voter registration record, but that doesn’t mean the ballot affidavit itself is a voter registration record.”
Hannah clarified that the issue would be resolved under public records law, implying that the county must justify that disclosing these records might infringe on privacy or not align with the state’s best interest.
Lake has been challenging the outcome of the 2022 election in which she lost to the present Democratic Governor of Arizona, Katie Hobbs.
Lake alleges that numerous Republican voters were disenfranchised due to voting machine glitches that plagued at least 60% of Maricopa County’s voting centers on Election Day.
She has also highlighted significant issues in the signature validation process for absentee ballots.
Lake is determined to take her lawsuit as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.
In response to Lake’s claims, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer recently launched a defamation lawsuit against her.
Richer argues that Lake has falsely accused him of tampering with the 2022 midterm election by adding 300,000 unauthorized ballots to the final vote count in the county, Arizona’s most populated.
