Sanctions Or No, Kari Lake Filing Yet Another Lawsuit Next Week To Overturn Election

It’s a busy day in Arizona election news, specifically because Kari Lake doesn’t know when to quit. She filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging Maricopa County officials violated election laws —  for which she has to pay sanctions — and now she’s planning to file another suit asking that the election be overturned. This is happening despite the fact that Cochise County, which was Lake’s strongest hold out, decided to cave Thursday afternoon and certify the election.

As you are probably aware, Cochise County in Arizona was holding out because there are some die hard election deniers there. Republican county supervisor Peggy Judd told an emergency board meeting that she “couldn’t bring herself” to make a motion to certify election results, but she did, interesting enough, vote in favor of doing so when Chairwoman Ann English made the motion.

Interesting gesture. To me it says, “My heart isn’t in this but I’ll do it because it’s the right thing to do.” Arizona Mirror via Raw Story:

 She [supervisor Judd] told both the New York Times and the Daily Beast that the delay in certifying the election — past the statutory deadline — was a form of protest against Election Day problems that happened in Maricopa County.

Judd remained defiant Thursday afternoon, even as she voted to canvass the election.

“I can’t say enough about how important this effort is that we made and I am not ashamed of anything that I did,” Judd said.

Judd added that she felt she must vote to certify the election because of the court order, saying she believes in the rule of law, and because of the impact of some health issues she’s been experiencing.

“I know I’m going to disappoint a lot of people and I’m going to make a lot of people happy,” Judd said.

And the county supervisor, Ann English, chimed in with this.

I think it’s a circus that doesn’t need to have to happen. I’ve had enough. I think the public has had enough.

Indeed the public has, but we’re dealing with a lunatic here, who has created a political side show in Arizona and does not want to let it go. Sources tell TIME Magazine that Lake intends to file suit in Maricopa County next week, alleging that voters were disenfranchised by issues with a tabulator machine and the election should be overturned.

This is what her last suit was about  so maybe this suit won’t get filed. But the TIME article is dated today, so I have to believe this is the most recent information. And if anybody is crazy enough to file a series of lawsuits, it would be Lake. She’s like Trump, she’s not filing on the merits, she’s filing to grift, like he files to delay.

Lake, the former news anchor turned politician, intends to ask the Maricopa County Superior Court to nullify its election and hold it over again. Such a decision would be unprecedented in modern American elections. Some of Lake’s top advisers recognize that the chances of a judge ruling in their favor are slim. “Courts require proof,” a Lake insider tells TIME. “And it’s going to be hard to prove. You don’t know how many people actually drove to a polling location, looked at the long line, and left. You’ll never know who decided not to pull in. And that’s unfortunate for Kari. We can just argue common sense. But that’s not evidence in court. It’s going to be tough.”

On social media, Lake has said her lawsuit will include “at least one smoking gun” based on whistleblowers who have contacted her campaign. “I’m working with a team of patriotic, talented lawyers on a legal case to challenge the botched elections,” she said in one video. “We will file this case in accordance with Arizona state law, and you’ll want to stay tuned for this one. Trust me.”

Lake is being represented by the Phoenix-based conservative lawyer Tim La Sota, and sources say there are conversations ongoing with the Republican National Committee to potentially join in the lawsuit. Lake’s campaign had hired Harmeet Dhillon, an RNC committeewoman who helped with Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 election, to run its election week operations.

All of Arizona’s counties convened on Monday. Cochise County said it wanted until Friday to certify and they certified today. The certification process must be finished by December 5 and apparently, that’s when Lake will file her frivolous, specious, makeweight (this is legalese for horseshit) lawsuit.

One longtime Arizona politico acknowledged that the problems were disruptive, but insisted that they did not ultimately disenfranchise Arizona voters. “Were there some inconveniences? Yeah, absolutely,” Barrett Marson, a veteran Arizona Republican operative, tells TIME. “Did Maricopa County make a mistake? Absolutely. But did they rectify it as soon as possible? Absolutely. Did people have to wait in long lines to vote? Yes, but they voted. That’s Kari Lake’s problem. People were still allowed to vote.”

During the public comment period on Monday at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, Lake supporters one by one excoriated the county, in some cases citing unsubstantiated claims that the technological hiccups were part of an intentional plot to steal the election. “This is a war between good and evil,” one man told the board, “and you all represent evil.”

And that is how Lake is depicting the issue, precisely. It’s a war between good and evil and of course, she’s on a mission from God.

Kari Lake says she is on a mission from God to save us from the globalists. pic.twitter.com/fmTVVJ5jGQ

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 30, 2022

It’s anybody’s guess when she’ll stop. Expect her to show up later this month at Amfest in Phoenix to grift off the America First crowd and keep things going. But the fact that she had a judge order her to pay sanctions today is surely a speedbump of some significance, if not an actual wall. We’ll have to see what develops day by day. Lake is clearly in the wrong and doing this for show but this show might have a lot shorter run than she thinks.