Supreme Court rejects Kari Lake, Mark Finchem in machine voting lawsuit, ending legal challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal brought by Arizona Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, bringing finality to the duo's legal effort challenging the use of electronic voting machines two years to the day after it began.

Lake, a candidate for U.S. Senate, and Finchem, a candidate for state Senate, asked the nation's top court to hear their case in mid-March. The court declined to consider it, making that official with an order on Monday that does not include details of the court's decision.

Legal experts had predicted the court would not exercise its discretion to add the case to its docket, citing well-established legal precedent and the court's low acceptance rate.

Every year, 5,000 to 6,000 cases are appealed to the court, which eventually hears oral arguments in 60 or 70 cases, according to the Supreme Court's website. That's a rate of about 1%.

Lake and Finchem first filed their lawsuit in federal court in Arizona in April 2022, when both were candidates for other offices. Lake was running for governor, and Finchem for secretary of state.

Both were defeated by Democrats in an election that was widely viewed as Arizonans' rebuke of former president Donald Trump's acolytes who espouse stolen election views.

“Election deniers have attacked our democracy at every turn, and this decision not to hear the appeal by a conservative supreme court underscores deniers’ inability to produce a legitimate argument against our elections system," Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, whose office Lake and Finchem sued, said in a statement. Fontes said it was "time to stop breathing oxygen into these dying narratives that inspire unhinged attacks" and instead focus on the work of election officials to "ensure safe, secure and fair elections."

Lake and Finchem asked judges to order Maricopa and Pima counties to stop using machines called tabulators to count ballots and require paper ballots and a hand count. Arizonans have for years used paper ballots to cast their votes, and election officials have warned that hand counts take longer and are less accurate than using machines.

U.S. District Judge John Tuchi dismissed their claims and what he called their "frivolous complaint" in Aug. 2022, saying they did not have standing — a legal precedent that requires an individual who files a case is directly impacted by the conduct they are suing over. Tuchi later ordered their legal team to pay six figures in sanctions to deter "similarly baseless suits in the future."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in October upheld Tuchi's ruling and agreed the case rested on hypotheticals. The case was funded by Mike Lindell, founder of MyPillow and a fervent ally of Trump who promotes false claims that elections are rigged.

Throughout, Lake and Finchem and their lawyers echoed conspiracies about Dominion Voting Systems that were put forth by Trump and last year led to a $787.5 million defamation settlement against Fox News. Dominion sued the media company alleging it knew claims made on-air — about Dominion technology being susceptible to fraud and changing the outcome of the 2020 presidential election — were false.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors declined to comment on the Supreme Court decision. A spokesperson for Lake's U.S. Senate campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Finchem.

Several Republican party organizations, including the Republican Party of Arizona and the Maricopa County Republican Committee, filed briefs urging the nation's highest court to take the case.

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

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake, Mark Finchem machine voting lawsuit: Court rejects appeal