Kari Lake files first election challenge lawsuit, vows more action ahead

Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said Wednesday that she sued Maricopa County to force it to release documents about voting irregularities in the midterms, a prelude to a larger legal challenge where she's planning to challenge the election results.

"Every single rule was pretty much broken when it came to Election Day voting where they punish the people who chose to show up on Election Day," Lake said on the Wednesday edition of the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "So we filed this lawsuit in court today asking the county to cough up some of the public documentation we need for our bigger lawsuit."

Lake says she believes that her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs, ran a botched election and what was done incorrectly needs to come to light. Hobbs was the Arizona secretary of state, and thus in charge of running the election, but she was also the Democratic candidate who was declared the winner by the media, and she declared victory in the race. The election is supposed to be officially certified on November 28. 

"We plan to sue," Lake stated. "We're just waiting to see what happens because we believe Katie Hobbs knows that it was a botched election."

Many voting centers in Maricopa County experienced issues with election equipment, including many ballots being rejected by tabulators and voting machines not having enough ink. According to Lake, many voters had to wait in line for more than three hours to vote and some had to leave without voting due to the long wait time.

When asked what the remedy of the lawsuit would be, Lake said it hasn't been determined yet, but accountability must occur. 

"We have not determined that," Lake answered. "Many people are saying they want a redo of Maricopa County. I've heard people say throw it out. We have not determined what the remedy is. But I don't think you can fix what happened to the vast majority of voters who showed up on Election Day being disenfranchised in this way. We're working on what we believe the remedy should be."

Lake says that Maricopa has not provided certain information her team has requested for the lawsuit.

"We requested all kinds of real basic information, such as the number of voters who checked in versus the number of ballots that were counted at each polling place," Lake explained. "When we started asking pointed questions, they went silent."