Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah issued a ruling Wednesday denying Kari Lake’s special action that requested to inspect the ballot affidavit envelopes, or the electronic images of those envelopes, from Maricopa County’s 2022 general election. The recorder’s office denied Lake’s initial public records request for the affidavits because they contained voters’ signatures, so she sued the county. During the September trial, Hannah refused to allow most of Lake’s witnesses to testify or her exhibits into evidence.
Shelby Busch, the co-founder of We the People AZ Alliance, which has been investigating illegal election activities for the Lake campaign, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Judge Hannah’s decision was predictably bad. Denying Kari the ability to put forward witnesses, testimony or even a rebuttal to the County is further evidence that he is a far-left Judge trying to legislate from the bench. This is the people’s election and denying them the right to inspect public records is further confirmation that protecting the corrupt institution is their primary goal. Journalists everywhere should be outraged, this is a huge miscarriage to public transparency and accountability, but how many of them will step up?”
Even though voters sign the outside of the envelopes, then drop their ballots in the public mail system where many people see their signatures, Hannah claimed, “Disclosure of the ballot affidavit envelopes therefore would create a risk of widespread fraud where none exists at present.”
Hannah (pictured above) also claimed, “The release of the ballot affidavit envelopes would also create a real possibility of voter harassment.” He relayed how witnesses testified during the hearing about how canvassers showed up at their homes to ask them about their votes. However, the canvassers showed up even though the ballot affidavit envelopes were not released to the public.
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