Kari Lake: Trump-endorsed Republican sues in bid to overturn Arizona election defeat

Lake argues ‘if the process was illegitimate, then so are the results’

Republican candidate Kari Lake, who lost the Arizona governor’s race, has filed a lawsuit against the state’s election officials in an effort to overturn her defeat.

The former news anchor on Friday filed a lawsuit with the Maricopa County Superior Court targetting her opponent and Democratic governor-elect Katie Hobbs along with top officials in the state's most populous Maricopa County.

Ms Lake – a proponent of Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election – was one of the most high-profile Republican candidates to be endorsed by the former president in the midterm elections.

The gubernatorial candidate has refused to concede defeat despite losing to Ms Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes in November. Her suit comes weeks after she made a series of unconfirmed claims about election improprieties on Twitter.

The suit is seeking an order declaring that Ms Lake is the winner of the Arizona gubernatorial election, or alternatively throwing out the results and requiring the state's Maricopa County to conduct a fresh poll.

The lawsuit alleges that voters experienced difficulties while voting on the day of elections in Maricopa County, and that hundreds of thousands of ballots were cast illegally.

“If the process was illegitimate, then so are the results,” Ms Lake said on Twitter on Friday evening. “Stay tuned, folks.”

Ms Hobbs, who is serving as Arizona’s secretary of state, called the lawsuit “baseless” and an attempt to “undermine our democracy and throw out the will of the voters”.

"Kari Lake needs attention like a fish needs water – and independent experts and local election officials of both parties have made clear that this was a safe, secure and fair election," Ms Hobbs said in a statement.

Sophia Solis, a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office, said Ms Lake’s lawsuit was being reviewed but that she had no other comment on the filing.

Jason Berry, a Maricopa County spokesperson, said the county “respects the election contest process and looks forward to sharing facts about the administration of the 2022 general election and our work to ensure every legal voter had an opportunity to cast their ballot.”

He declined to comment on Ms Lake’s request to throw out the county’s election results in the governor’s race.

Earlier last month, Ms Lake had filed a public records lawsuit demanding Maricopa County hand over documents related to the election as she was seeking to identify voters who may have had trouble casting their ballot.