Kari Lake drops court case she called key to her election challenge

PHOENIX — Republican Kari Lake has dropped her effort to get access to ballot envelopes she argued were key in her bid to overturn her 2022 loss in the election for governor.

In a brief filing Monday, Lake’s attorney, Bryan Blehm, withdrew his notice that he intends to appeal the November ruling that rejected her claim she was entitled to see the envelopes.

Blehm provided no explanation. Messages to both his office and Lake’s current campaign for U.S. Senate were not immediately returned.

Monday’s action puts to rest, at least for the time being, the question of whether the envelopes used to return early ballots — and the signatures on them — are subject to public disclosure.

But while Lake has given up, her allies have not.

There is still a pending case against Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed by We The People Alliance demanding access. That group, which is organized as a political action committee, claims to have something Lake does not: The special privileges of being a “reportorial agency,’’ which it says allow it to see records that cannot be shown to others.

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No date has been set for a trial in that case.

Lake’s decision to drop her case comes months after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah rejected her claims and chided her for trying to get access to voter signatures — something he said most people regard as private.

“The broad right of electoral participation outweighs the narrow interests of those who would continue to pick at the machinery of democracy,’’ the judge wrote.

“Ms. Lake regards the electoral process much like villagers in the famous fable regarding the goose that laid the golden eggs, except that her goose failed to lay the egg she expected,’’ Hannah wrote of Lake’s effort to void her 17,117-vote loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs.

Hannah said there’s a legitimate reason to shield the envelopes and the information on them, including both a signature and a phone number, from public scrutiny. It comes down to whether that would undermine voter confidence, he wrote.