PHOENIX — Kari Lake supporters are mounting a new effort to void her loss in the 2022 governor's race, less than a month after one supporter's attempt was rebuffed by the Arizona Supreme Court.
And the essential elements of the new claim, this one to Maricopa County Superior Court, remain the same as those the state's high court refused to consider.
The supporters' attorney, Ryan Heath, contends now, as he did then, that it was illegal for Maricopa County to verify signatures on early ballots by comparing them with images from prior early ballots. He argues Arizona law says the only valid comparison has to be with the person's original voter registration.
What he has now that he did not last month is a ruling by Yavapai County Superior Court John Napper in a similar case seemingly agreeing with the argument.
But that decision, while providing legal fodder to support Heath's theory about ballot signature verification, is not final.
Moreover, in the Yavapai County case, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections are seeking only a declaratory judgment prohibiting recorders from using anything but original voter registration records when verifying early ballots in future elections.
What Heath wants is a ruling that is retroactive. He wants Maricopa County Judge Michael Gordon to say not only was the practice illegal in the 2022 election but that it so tainted the votes for governor as to require an entirely new vote in Maricopa County, this time counting only early ballots where the signatures on the envelopes match what is on the voters' original registration records.
He challenges other results, too
It's not just for the race that Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by 17,117 votes that Heath is seeking a second election.
Heath also says the judge should order a do-over in the race for attorney general, where Democrat Kris Mayes beat Republican Abe Hamadeh by 280 votes.
Also challenged is the 60,443-vote victory for Proposition 308, which allows those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program who meet other qualifications to attend public colleges and universities paying the same tuition as Arizona residents. Heath said the 18,488-vote loss for Proposition 309 to mandate new voter identification requirements also should be rerun in Maricopa County.
"Maricopa County failed, in fact, to apply uniform signature verification standards for a material number of approximately 1.3 million votes cast through mail-in ballots,'' Heath says in his new filing. "As a result, every single one of those 1.3 million votes is tainted by the fatal stain of 'uncertainty,' requiring the setting aside of all ballots from Maricopa County for all statewide races for the 2022 General Election as a matter of law.''
But Heath is not applying that logic to all close statewide contests.
Most notably, he is not seeking a new election in the race for superintendent of public instruction where incumbent Democrat Kathy Hoffman lost to Republican Tom Horne by 8,967 votes. He did not immediately respond to inquiries about his decision to pick and choose which races he wants redone.
Same arguments as before
The wording in his complaint is not new.
Heath made the same arguments a month ago to the Arizona Supreme Court in what is known as a "special action'' complaint. He argued, among other things, the high court should take the case directly because going through the regular process — starting in Superior Court — "would add months of litigation and unnecessary expense'' for not only his clients — two supporters of Lake — but also the county officials who would have to defend against his claims.
But a panel of four of the seven justices, in an Aug. 24 order, said Heath "did not provide a compelling reason as to why this matter could not be initiated in a lower court.'' They also said starting with a trial judge was more appropriate as that judge could consider disputed facts.
As to expediting the matter by skipping a trial court, the justices pointed out that Heath waited nine months after the 2022 General Election to bring the case to court.
So they dismissed his complaint, but with permission for him to refile it, this time with a trial court, which is what he has now done.
Still, other legal hurdles remain.
Election officials in most counties have said they, too, also use signatures on file other than the original voter registration document, ranging from prior requests to get an early ballot to signatures on driver's licenses, to compare to the signatures on the ballot envelopes.
Yet Heath is trying to get a new vote only in Maricopa County. He is suing only Maricopa County officials and none from the other 14 counties.
The reason, Heath said, is testimony from Rey Valenzuela, the Maricopa County elections director, during Lake's own unsuccessful bid to overturn the results of the gubernatorial race.
Heath said Valenzuela acknowledged that his county does signature comparison not only using earlier documents but also digitized images that were on early ballot envelopes from prior elections. Heath said that is a practice of only Maricopa County.
One of his clients is David Mast, who was behind an unsuccessful attempt to intercede directly in Lake's own election challenge with similar arguments about invalid early ballot signatures. The other is Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby who, in a separate legal action, had to be ordered by a judge to certify the results of the 2022 election after he and fellow Republican Supervisor Peggy Judd pushed for a hand count based on claims that vote-counting machines are prone to hacking or otherwise untrustworthy.
Heath contends the inclusion of what he said were illegal votes from Maricopa County diluted the votes of both of his clients.
No date has been set for a hearing.
The challenge is separate from those being pursued both by Lake and Hamadeh to overturn the election returns.
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