A day after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled against Kari Lake on her second election challenge trial, Lake held a press conference outlining her future plans. She said she is looking at “several paths for appeal” and is also launching a new “chase the ballot” group headed up by EZAZ grassroots organizer Merissa Hamilton. During the event, Lake, who is known for getting the best of reporters due to her skilled background as a news anchor, tangled repeatedly with the local mainstream media.
Lake denounced the election fraud and the disappointing court rulings against her. “They know they’re frauds,” she declared. “They absolutely know they’re frauds.”
Thompson threw out her case claiming she had not shown misconduct by an election official, but previous Arizona case law does not require that standard, it merely requires a showing that a non-technical statute such as Arizona’s signature verification statute was violated.
Lake said the new Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort will involve making sure voters cast their early ballots, describing it as “the largest ballot chasing operation in American history.” The new organization will be operated under Lake’s Save Arizona Fund.
BREAKING: @KariLake Announces Largest Ballot Chasing Operation in American History! pic.twitter.com/9JZOYUmPQ0
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) May 23, 2023
She expounded:
We will not allow them to steal another election from We the People; we want our government back. And right now we have people sitting in these offices and our government, who are not duly elected. We are better at doing everything better than the left.
We know we have better candidates; they put forth people who can’t even string two or three words together, they put forth people who aren’t even healthy enough to hold office, mentally healthy enough to hold office, because they can’t find good people who actually will push the garbage they’re pushing on Americans.
We’ve seen them do anything possible to stop We the People from taking back our government, but we the people are gonna stand up. We’ve been playing checkers; they’ve been playing chess, and we’re gonna start, we’re going to show up to a knife fight with a gun, not a knife.
FYI @KariLake commences first Republican "chasing ballots" operation for 2024.
This is a major GOTV campaign, which will use "anything goes" tactics to swing Arizona back to the Republicans.
Has thousands of "ballot chasers" for mass registerations and other left-wing tactics.…
— 👑 Mαχιмυs Knιgнт♞ (@Maximus_4EVR) May 23, 2023
Lake had some strong words regarding her case being thrown out, and especially denounced the mainstream media for its unfair coverage. “They don’t want secure elections, they’d rather fight against us,” she said. “This is why their subscriptions are down, because people have figured out their lies.”
A reporter from the Associated Press accused Lake of discouraging voting by mail, and Lake schooled him by explaining that she has said at least “a hundred times” that people should vote whichever way best works for their situation.
Earlier in the press conference, Lake said, “87 percent of our voters are on the permanent early voter list, and you know how I feel about mail-in ballots — this is the game we have to play if we got to work in their rigged system.”
Another reporter accused her of grifting since the election. Lake responded, “I haven’t made any income. I’ve been living off my savings.”
Capitol Media’s Howie Fischer started to read the judge’s decision to Lake, and she interrupted him, “I know what the judge said, I read the opinion, I’m asking you.” Lake wanted to know whether Fischer thought it was possible to review 300,000 signatures in under 3 seconds each. Fischer appeared to dodge the question. She noted that Fischer’s reporting didn’t mention any of the Maricopa County employees who conducted signature verification from home.
Lake said her new election integrity organization is already fully funded, and will be paying Hamilton. Hamilton expressed confidence in the effort, “We know this model works because we just did it in southern Arizona and with just a handle of money. With just a few hundreds, we were able to defeat a $300,000 effort to bring the green New Deal into Arizona.”
During her presser, @KariLake introduced @merissahamilton as the designated leader of Arizona Ballot-Chasing (“ABC”) initiative.
Then, she took a moment to rebuke @brahmresnik for supporting the masking of children and refusing to salute the flag.
Watch: https://t.co/s4o6acvr7o pic.twitter.com/DTpJHcBVct
— iVoteArizona™ (@iVoteArizona) May 24, 2023
💥NOT VOTING IS SURRENDER
It is my greatest honor to serve the grassroots
I am honored to join @KariLake in our shared mission to Save AZ!
I can't wait to get resources to our amazing volunteers in every corner of the state & register more voters
Let's get to work!#SaveAZ https://t.co/XR4C340Z9K
— Merissa Hamilton 🗳 ⛽ 🗽🔥 (@merissahamilton) May 24, 2023
Lake did not specify any details regarding her appeal, merely stating she was considering several avenues. She may appeal directly to the Arizona Court of Appeals, or try to bypass that court and go directly to the Arizona Supreme Court like she unsuccessfully attempted to do after her first trial. Since the latter court directed the trial court on what to consider during the second trial, the likelihood of those justices directly accepting her appeal are higher this time. Lake could also appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore CC2.0.