Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) sent a letter to Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) Monday, requesting she investigate Republican Kari Lake for allegedly violating state law by sharing images of voter signatures on social media. Tim LaSota, one of Lake’s attorneys, accused Fontes of selectively quoting the law to defame Lake.
“This is becoming all too common in politics – another attempt to weaponize the justice system with a phony allegation against a Republican. Adrian Fontes selectively quotes the statute in an attempt to distort the law and smear Kari Lake in the process. Kris Mayes should immediately say that she will have no part in this shameful, disgusting effort,” LaSota said in a statement emailed to The Arizona Sun Times.
A spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office confirmed to The Sun Times that Mayes has received the letter but could not comment further on the matter.
According to his letter, Fontes alleges that Lake violated Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) § 16-168(F). He presented the law as reading, “records containing a voter’s signature…shall not be accessible or reproduced by any person other than the voter…” and stated that Lake violated the law by sharing a picture of voter signatures. The rest of the statute explains that aside from the voter, other entities such as authorized government officials acting under their duties, any agency delegated by the Arizona Secretary of State, and those associated with the press can have access to these documents. Anyone unauthorized to share the outlined documents are guilty of a class 6 felony. Class 6 is the lowest level felony in Arizona, but it could still result in prison time and fines.
However, LaSota argued that Lake had the right to share the image because the information came from the Arizona State Senate.
“This information came from the Arizona Senate investigation on acceptance of clearly mismatched signatures on early ballots, and Kari Lake has an absolute right under the First Amendment to republish the information presented to the Senate,” LaSota said in his statement shared with The Sun Times.
As reported by The Sun Times, the State Senate Elections Committee met on January 23rd and viewed a presentation showing the results of an investigation into the 2022 November Election led by We the People AZ (WPAZ) head Shelby Busch. Former State Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) commissioned the investigation, and WPAZ got the data shared in the presentation through a public records request.
One of the main points presented from the investigation was a “systemic failure” of ballot signature verification in 2020. As evidence, the group presented several redacted images of ballots from the 2020 election where the signature on the affidavit did not match the one on the voter’s registration records. The images from this presentation are the ones Lake posted on social media and claimed the senate testimony confirmed that nearly 40,000 ballots were illegally counted.
🚨 BOMBSHELL DISCOVERY 🚨
Today’s Senate Testimony CONFIRMS nearly 40,000 ballots illegally counted (10% of the signatures reviewed).
I think all the “Election Deniers” out there deserve an apology. pic.twitter.com/3g2x5zgd2c
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 23, 2023
Lake is involved in an ongoing election challenge of the results of the November 2022 election. Arizona Court of Appeal judges are set to meet regarding Lake’s case on Wednesday, February 1st. According to AZ Law, there will not be oral arguments or further evidence presented, the judges’ conference will be private, no parties will be present, and it will not be live-streamed. An opinion from the court could take days or weeks to release. Although, if the results take too long, Lake could again ask the Arizona Supreme Court to take her case directly, without a decision from the Court of Appeals.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Kari Lake.
