After being shot down by a judge, Kari Lake withdraws appeal on ballot return envelopes
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake has withdrawn her notice that she would appeal a public records case tied to her failed gubernatorial bid.
The move ends one, but not all, of her court cases related to her 2022 defeat.
Lake's attorney, Bryan Blehm, notified the Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday that Lake was withdrawing the paperwork required to appeal the case. Why she withdrew is not explained in the latest court papers, and representatives of Lake's political and legal operations did not respond to requests for comment.
Lake initially sought to review the ballot envelopes that more than 1 million Maricopa County voters used to return their ballots in 2022. Lake lost that race for governor to Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, by just over 17,000 votes.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer maintained the early ballot envelopes, which include voter signatures, were not subject to public review under Arizona Public Records Law. Richer cited a specific exemption for signatures in state law. After a two-day trial last year, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah rejected Lake's case and affirmed Richer's decision.
Richer, a Republican seeking a second term in office, said he was confident the Court of Appeals would have sided with his office had it heard the case. He said by voluntarily withdrawing the paperwork that gave notice of a pending appeal, Lake had ended the case.
He said more than 30 election-related lawsuits have been filed and not one has led to a finding of wrongdoing by his office.
“It’s one more off the deck," he said. "It's one thing we can erase from the whiteboard of all the cases, so that’s nice.”
A television news anchor turned political candidate, Lake is now running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.
While Lake labeled the 2022 elections "rigged" and "stolen" during and after her bid for the Arizona Governor's Office, more recently she has taken a forward-looking position that may more easily appeal to swing voters repelled by candidates who deny election results without evidence.
Still, her legal effort to overturn Hobbs' victory is pending before the Arizona Court of Appeals. Lake vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lake's Senate campaign did not respond to an email request from The Arizona Republic seeking to understand why Lake dropped the public records appeal. A similar request to the Save Arizona Fund, which Lake established during her gubernatorial campaign, yielded no comment.
Blehm did not return an email request, and the phone number listed for him on court filings was not in service. He was fined and is facing disciplinary proceedings that could affect his ability to practice law in Arizona related to Lake's challenge to Hobbs' victory.
Richer said voters can be confident their personal information remains cloaked.
“If you had any apprehensions about somebody being able to pair your signature with your cellphone number, with your street address, by simply requesting this for all early voters in Maricopa County, you no longer have to have that apprehension because the law as we understood it has been upheld," Richer said.
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He added a plea to voters ahead of the March 19 presidential preference election: “So turn in those early ballots.”
Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at [email protected] or 480-416-5669.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake withdraws appeal of rejected public records lawsuit