9th Circuit rules against voting machine case brought by Kari Lake, Mark Finchem
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims Monday from losing Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and losing secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem that vote tabulation machines are unconstitutional.
Republicans Lake and Finchem had claimed that the machines are unreliable because they are subject to hacking and manipulation.
The original suit was brought ahead of the 2022 election, seeking to have the state only use paper ballots. A trial judge made a similar ruling before the election, saying the arguments were based on speculation.
Since the election is passed, the appellate panel said Lake and Finchem only hold claims that using electronic tabulation devices denies them a fundamental right to vote.
'This is the kind of speculation that stretches the concept of imminence'
In the 11-page ruling, the judges said the pair never presented evidence that machines used in Arizona to count ballots had ever been hacked.
"Plaintiffs simply have not plausibly alleged a real and immediate threat of future injury,'' the panel said, instead advancing "only conjectural allegations of potential injuries.''
There was no immediate response from either Lake or Finchem.
In filing suit ahead of the 2022 race, the pair alleged that the machines are unreliable because they are subject to hacking. And they said the use of components in computers from other countries makes them vulnerable.
The appellate judges, however, noted that U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi, who rejected their claims before the 2022 vote, did a deep dive into their allegations. And what they amounted to, Tuchi said was a "long chain of hypothetical contingencies'' — ones that have never occurred in Arizona — that would have to take place for any harm to occur.
"This is the kind of speculation that stretches the concept of imminence beyond its purpose,'' the appellate judges said.
The judges also noted that Lake and Finchem, in their complaint about how machine counting is flawed, cited the hand count of ballots in Maricopa County by Cyber Ninjas ordered by Senate President Karen Fann after the 2020 election.
The court pointed out that, however, even that report found "no substantial differences'' between its hand count and the official totals. In fact, it actually showed that Democrat Joe Biden won by a wider result over Republican Donald Trump than the reported tally.
Lake continues to claim 2022 win
Monday's ruling does nothing to affect Lake's ongoing efforts to have state judges overturn her 17,117-vote loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs for governor or, at the very least, order a new election.
She continues to claim there were issues with the 2022 race, including what she said was the failure of Maricopa County to properly compare the signature on envelopes containing early ballots with those on file. And Lake separately has accused Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer of illegally inserting more than 300,000 phony ballots into the system and sabotaging Election Day votes by printing the ballots in the wrong size.
None of these have been accepted by trial judges, with Lake now seeking review -- and permission to introduce what she says is new evidence -- at the state Court of Appeals. Richer, meanwhile, has sued Lake for defamation.
Finchem, who lost to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes by more than 120,000 votes, has abandoned his appeal after losing at trial court.
