Breaking: “Influenced The Election Results” Maricopa County Announces Investigation Into Ballot Printer Debacle

Credit: The Wall Street Journal

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Officials in Maricopa County, Arizona said on Friday that they would investigate reports of problems with printers, during the highly contested November election. This investigation comes after complaints from many voters and legal action from GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

Former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor said she would lead the “independent” probe, according to county officials. The former justice was a member of the Arizona Supreme Court from 1998 to 2009, and she took part in the 2019 investigation into security issues involving Arizona prisons.

McGregor plans to hire a team of “independent experts to find out why the printers that read ballots well in the August Primary had trouble reading some ballots while using the same settings in the November General,” Maricopa Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and Vice Chairman Clint Hickman noted in the statement. 

“Our voters deserve nothing less.”

Daily Wire reported:

After Maricopa County, which includes the capital of Phoenix and is Arizona’s most populous county, became an epicenter of voter integrity issues stemming from the 2020 presidential election, it again faced controversy in last year’s November 8 contest when tabulators in roughly 70 of 223 voting centers reportedly had trouble reading ballots. The problems were attributed to printers that failed to produce sufficiently dark “timing marks” to inform scanners of voter information, according to the Associated Press.

In response to a November request for information from Arizona’s then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Maricopa County said affected residents were offered alternative ways to vote and insisted the printer glitches did not prevent anyone from casting ballots. Still, some candidates have raised concerns.

The Maricopa County officials decided to launch the probe comes after Kari Lake filed a lawsuit that isn’t challenging her loss to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, but channeling how the election was conducted.

In Lake’s suit, she claims that county election officials worked to disenfranchise voters, alleging that “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election in Maricopa County.” She also mentioned the malfunctioning printers were an issue.

A judge threw out the lawsuit, but Lake has filed for an appeal.

She filed two appeals on Wednesday of last week related to a lawsuit challenging her loss in the Arizona gubernatorial race. She also filed a motion to have her lawsuit heard by the Arizona Supreme Court, which was denied.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled against Lake’s challenge after finding the court was not presented with clear and convincing evidence in the widespread misconduct, she alleged influenced the election results,” Fox News reported. 

“Lake, on Wednesday, filed an appeal with the Appeals Court on Judge Thompson’s ruling. She also filed a motion to send the appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court, asking to skip a step with the Appeals Court. Arizona’s Supreme Court denied the request to transfer the appeal.”

In the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision, it said “no good cause appears to transfer the matter to this court.”

Lake tweeted an update on Wednesday night: “My court case will be going before the Appeals Court prior to the Arizona Supreme Court because it’s already been scheduled for review. This decision was done without prejudice & I am confident the case will end up in their hands eventually. We’re moving forward.”

Lake is asking the Arizona Court of Appeals to reconsider all ten counts of a lawsuit that were tossed by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson. 

Lake is also asking the appeals court to overturn the decision for her to pay $33,000 in fees to Hobbs.