Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake lost a major legal battle on Monday in which she was contesting the results of Arizona’s 2022 election.
Lake lost her appeal on Monday but vowed to make a major announcement on Tuesday. Many have speculated Lake will either announce another attempt to appeal or that she will run for Kyrsten Sinema’s Senate seat in 2024.
Lake tweeted: “Big announcement tomorrow!”
Lake’s official campaign Twitter account — Kari Lake War Room — also alluded to a significant forthcoming announcement:
“If you had something precious taken from you. How hard would you fight to save it?” the War Room account stated. “Big News Coming Tomorrow.”
Notably, Lake has not conceded the gubernatorial race to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Election officials claim Lake lost by approximately 17,000 votes.
In Lake’s multiple suits, she challenged how voting ballots were mailed, counted and processed and how the signatures were verified.
Lake has filed legal complaints against Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and several Maricopa County election officials. She has demanded she be declared the winner of the 2022 election or that state officials schedule a new election.
On Monday, the state Supreme Court noted abnormalities in the signature verification process but overrode Lake’s complaints saying the code does not stipulate exactly how signatures are to be verified.
Lake’s legal team had argued that when lower-level screeners noted variations in the signature forms, their concerns were ignored by managers and supervisors.
On Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson ruled against Lake, stating that her legal team did not provide sufficient evidence to support her claims.
Thompson stated there was “no statutory or legal requirement” (or specific protocol) for “verifying signatures.”
“Giving all due weight to Mr. Speckin’s signature verification expertise, his analysis and preferred methodology is not law, and a violation of law is what Plaintiff was required to demonstrate,” Thompson wrote.
“Accepting that argument would require the court to re-write not only the [Election Procedures Manual] but Arizona law to insert a minimum time for signature verification and specify the variables to be considered in the process,” the judge added.