Kari Lake asks judge to invalidate enough votes in the 2022 election to make her governor

US Senate candidate Kari Lake Friday petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to “set aside” Maricopa County’s 2022 election results entirely—or at least enough to hand her a victory in the governor’s race.

The petition, first obtained by AZ Law, is an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that Maricopa County properly verified the legitimacy of mail-in ballots for the 2022 election. In it, Lake’s attorneys argue that signatures on over 275,000 ballots were reviewed too quickly to be accurate, and should be invalidated.

Lake’s plan to toss votes

The filing stipulates that the ballots removed from the final vote total are proportionate to the percentage of early votes each candidate received, which would result in Lake’s victory by roughly 17,000 votes—the same number as Gov. Katie Hobbs’ margin of victory against Lake.

Alternately, Lake suggested the court throw out Maricopa County’s election results entirely, which would tilt the race in Lake’s favor by 20,000 votes. Either option would also upend—or negate entirely—the results of over 300 other elections and 10 ballot propositions sent to county voters that year, and the county would be tasked with the expensive and exhaustive task of running a special election to obtain the 2022 results while simultaneously administering the 2024 election.

Gov. Fontes?

A ruling in Lake’s favor would put her bid for US Senate in an awkward position, as Arizona’s resign-to-run laws forbid elected officials from accepting nominations for other positions unless it’s their final year in office. Should Lake win the July 30 Primary Election against Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, she would either need to drop out of the Senate race—leaving the Republican Party of Arizona with no candidate—or immediately resign as governor, which in turn would result in Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ appointment as the state’s chief executive.

US Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Democratic US Senate candidate running against Lake, was quick to point out his opponent’s quandary.

“As Kari Lake begs Arizonans to make her the next Senator, she’s pushing the courts to overturn the 2022 election and make her the Governor,” Gallego posted on Twitter. “She’s delusional. She’s unfit to serve. She’s too extreme for Arizona.”

Correction: A previous version of this article did not mention the July 30, 2024 Primary Election. We regret the error.