This week, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the current Republican nominees for governor and Secretary of State in Arizona, who wanted a court order for a hand count of the ballots cast in this year’s midterm elections in the southwestern state.
There remains no real-world evidence that tabulation machines used in the process of conducting elections recently facilitated any kind of systematic fraud, no matter how terrified MyPillow company chief Mike Lindell sounds of the machines. Lindell financially supported the failed Arizona case, which was filed by Kari Lake and Mark Finchem. (Apparently, he dropped some half a million dollars on the case.) Lake is the gubernatorial contender, while Finchem is running for Secretary of State, and as their involvement in this lawsuit suggests, both support election-related conspiracy theories.
“For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint is dismissed in its entirety,” federal Judge John Tuchi said. “While the Court agrees with Plaintiffs that the right to vote is precious, and should be protected, Plaintiffs lack standing because they have articulated only conjectural allegations of potential injuries that are in any event barred by the Eleventh Amendment, and seek relief that the Court cannot grant under the Purcell principle.” The principle cited by the judge restricts judicial meddling in the conducting of elections close to when affected elections will take place. “Another win for Arizona’s elections,” Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said Friday on the occasion of Tuchi dismissing the lawsuit. “Voters can have confidence that their vote counts and that Arizona’s procedures are accurate and secure- this lawsuit merely perpetuated false information about elections administration.”
Per ABC, Finchem complained in a text message about the judge relying on a lack of standing to dismiss the case — although that issue wasn’t the only point cited by the judge in rejecting the entreaties from the Republican candidates. Hobbs, who is the Democratic nominee for governor in the race against Lake to replace outgoing state chief executive Doug Ducey, was a defendant in the lawsuit. Any remotely reasonable examination of the relevant issues makes clear that conducting a hand count of ballots in upcoming elections would dramatically increase the opportunities for serious issues simply due to human error, in addition to substantially adding onto the costs and time associated with finalizing the results. Tuchi also noted the logistical issues with what Lake and Finchem wanted in outlining his conclusions.
“Not only do plaintiffs fail to produce any evidence that a full hand count would be more accurate, but a hand count would also require Maricopa County to hire 25,000 temporary staff and find two million square feet of space,’’ the judge noted. “In fact, with the county’s current employees it would be an impossibility to have the ballots counted in order to perform a canvass by the 20th day after the election, as required by law.” The original lawsuit apparently cited supposed issues including the usage of components from other countries in election-related equipment. Despite ignorant, false claims to the contrary from those pushing for dramatic changes to conducting elections, there are already rigorous checks of critical pieces of the entire electoral process, including tabulation machines. Such tests include using the machines to count pre-marked test ballots that have known totals and comparing the machine-tabulated outcome with existing numbers.
