Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake received another legal loss on Monday, after a judge dismissed her lawsuit where she alleged that "Arizona's use of electronic tabulation systems violated the federal Constitution."
On Monday, a panel of 9th Circuit judges dismissed Lake's lawsuit that she brought alongside former Arizona Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem, claiming that electronic voting tabulations in the state's 2022 midterm election could not be trusted with accurate results.
The dismissal of the lawsuit, which was filed in April, comes after Lake faced several legal setbacks following her loss last year in Arizona's governor race to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake has claimed, without any evidence, that the election was stolen from her due to a rigged system of faulty machines and potentially forged or invalid signatures on envelopes of submitted absentee ballots.
"In the end, none of Plaintiffs' allegations supports a plausible inference that their individual votes in future elections will be adversely affected by the use of electronic tabulation, particularly given the robust safeguards in Arizona law, the use of paper ballots, and the post-tabulation retention of those ballots," the panel of judges wrote. "The district court correctly dismissed the operative complaint for lack of Article III standing."
According to Democracy Docket, Lake's lawsuit argued that "because electronic machines are often connected to the internet and use software that is not publicly disclosed, the machines are inherently vulnerable to cyberattacks and voting fraud."
Meanwhile, Lake has continued to fight against her election loss, filing numerous lawsuits against voting systems and previously claimed that she was "entitled to an order vacating Maricopa County's canvass and Arizona's certification of the results of the 2022 election."
Despite her recent legal woes, Lake announced this month that she was planning to run for the U.S. Senate.
"I'm really tired of watching our politicians retreat from every single important battle. They're cowards. That's how we got into the mess we're in right now because they have surrendered far too many hills," she said at a rally earlier this month. "I am not going to retreat. I'm going to stand on top of this hill with every single one of you, and I know you're by my side as I formally announce my candidacy for the United States Senate."
In a post to X, formerly Twitter last Thursday, Lake wrote, "Our story isn't finished. Not by a long shot. We still have a state to save. I'm running for the United States Senate because our children deserve the same opportunities we got growing up."
Should Lake win the nomination, she will likely face off against Representative Ruben Gallego, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. These two could then find themselves competing against independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who has not said whether she will run.
Newsweek reached out to Lake's press office via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
