Republicans Kari Lake, Mark Finchem take rejected Arizona voting lawsuit to US Supreme Court

Rejected twice by federal judges in their effort to stop the use of electronic voting machines, Republican candidates for office Kari Lake and Mark Finchem have now taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawyers for Lake, who is running for U.S. Senate, and Finchem, who is seeking a state Senate seat, filed a 210-page petition with the nation's top court last week asking it to consider their case. The duo challenges the use of electronic machines that count votes, alleging they are hackable and not properly tested.

Their arguments, first made in 2022 when Lake was a Republican candidate for Arizona governor and Finchem a GOP candidate for secretary of state, have been repeatedly rejected as lacking evidence. Dominion Voting Systems, which manufactures the machines used in Maricopa County and in many other states, won a colossal settlement in a defamation case against Fox News last year related to similar false claims.

Lake narrowly lost to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, and Finchem was handily defeated by Democrat Adrian Fontes.

Yet nearly two years later, Lake and Finchem revived their calls for a "do-over."

"Although the 2022 election had not yet occurred when petitioners filed the operative complaint or when the district court ruled, a court could order 'do-over' relief (e.g., counting the paper ballots) in the 2022 election, as well as similar relief in future elections," the appeal argues.

The appeal paperwork was filed one day before Lake, a former television news anchor who has made attacks on the media a hallmark of her campaigns, submitted over 10,000 signatures to qualify for the August primary ballot.

“I told the people of Arizona after that election that I would do everything I can to fight for their sacred vote, and this is just another step in that process," Lake told reporters Friday.

“We need to have honest elections," she said. Asked if her common refrain of casting doubt on election operations fueled the public's distrust, Lake chuckled and said no, telling a reporter to "open your eyes" to the way elections are run.

Dems see line of attack as duo appeals to GOP base

The appeal plays to Lake's and Finchem's most faithful GOP supporters, the voters who turn out in primary elections, but could alienate general election voters.

Democratic operatives quickly seized on the appeal as a renewed chance to tie Lake to the election doubt that likely cost her the race for governor. The Arizona Democratic Party sent multiple email blasts seeking to amplify Lake's "work to push election conspiracy theories" even as she is under pressure from some national GOP figures to shift focus from past elections to future ones.

“Kari Lake is an election denier who has undermined our democracy and sown doubt in our elections for years," said Hannah Goss, spokesperson for Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego's campaign for Senate. "She will do anything to gain power, even though her baseless lies do nothing but hurt Arizonans — and that's exactly why they’ll reject her again.”

In response, Lake's campaign said it was Gallego who was "Arizona's OG election denier" — using an acronym that can mean original — based on a seven-year-old clip of a CNN interview. Gallego told CNN's Jim Acosta during the wide-ranging 2017 interview that Trump would not concede there was Russian meddling in elections because of his ego. Trump was correct in thinking that "he is not a legitimate president, according to many people," Gallego said.

A spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors did not respond to a request for comment, but the county has repeatedly stood by its use and testing of voting equipment, which is certified by state and federal election officials. Both bodies are named in the appeal.

Their responses to the Supreme Court appeal are due April 17, according to the court's docket.

Finchem said he would "patiently await acceptance by the court" of the appeal and "the opportunity to show the evidence of maladministration, perjury and deceit on the part of Maricopa County Supervisors and election officials affecting the 2020 and 2022 elections that has been accumulated."

No guarantees with SCOTUS

Lake and Finchem asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case that prior judges have said rested in "conjectural" claims and hypotheticals. The nation's top court, which has discretion to decide what cases to take up, usually hears roughly 1% of the appeals filed.

That has some court observers skeptical that Finchem and Lake's case will be heard.

"I doubt this will get there, especially since both the District Court and the Ninth Circuit both found flaws in standing, and standing is hard to achieve in voting cases," said Stefanie Lindquist, foundation professor of law and political science and executive director of the Center for Constitutional Design at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

To have standing to file a case, a candidate or voter has to show they were personally harmed by the actions of the defendant.

"One of the things the Supreme Court has been very clear on is you can't just come forward as a taxpayer, as a generalized voter, and just say, 'I see a problem with the system,'" Lindquist said. "There's other ways to fix that. ... If you don't show a unique injury to yourself ... you will not be granted standing."

Lake, Finchem already rejected by appellate court

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted in an October ruling that none of Finchem's and Lake's allegations support the idea that future elections could be marred because of electronic ballot-tabulation machines. They only presented "conjectural" claims that relied on a series of hypothetical circumstances "that have never occurred in Arizona," the ruling states.

Because they were no longer candidates for office and presented no evidence they were harmed by the use of voting machines, the appeals court dismissed the case and affirmed the prior ruling of U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi.

Tuchi ordered Lake's and Finchem's lawyers, Andrew D. Parker and his law firm, Parker Daniels Kibort LLC, and Kurt B. Olsen and his law firm, Olsen Law PC, along with Alan Dershowitz, to together pay a $122,200 sanction for the baseless case.

Olsen, who is facing disciplinary proceedings in Arizona, and Washington, D.C., and lawyer Lawrence J. Joseph are representing Lake and Finchem in their bid for Supreme Court consideration. Olsen and Joseph did not respond to an email request for comment Monday.

Lake and Finchem first filed the lawsuit in April 2022, alleging ballot tabulation machines weren't trustworthy and should not be used without objective tests.

The lawsuit echoed conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems and vote-tabulating machines put forth by former President Donald Trump and his legal team after he lost to Joe Biden in 2020. Colorado-based Dominion last year reached an unprecedented $787.5 million settlement with Fox News, ending a defamation case that targeted the cable news network's lies about the 2020 presidential election.

A separate case filed by Lake challenging her 2022 loss to Hobbs is still ongoing before an Arizona Court of Appeals.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ voting machines lawsuit: Kari Lake, Mark Finchem want SCOTUS review