The Supreme Court said no on Monday to a case brought by Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem regarding the use of voting machines in Arizona elections, marking another setback for the two GOP candidates, whose lawsuit has been turned down multiple times.
Lake and Finchem requested the Supreme Court to examine a federal appellate judge’s decision to dismiss their case in October, which aimed to stop electronic voting machines from being used in the state and questioned their accuracy and reliability.
Attorneys for Lake, a candidate for a Senate seat in Arizona, and Finchem, who is seeking a state Senate seat, argued in a court filing to the Supreme Court that they had adequately argued that Arizona-certified optical scanners and ballot marking devices, as well as their software, had been wrongly certified for use; Arizona’s voting machines had been hacked and manipulated; and there were apparent discrepancies in Maricopa County’s vote count after the 2020 election.
The lawsuit was filed before the November 2022 midterms, when Lake was running for governor and Finchem was running for secretary of state. Both of them lost their elections.
Their lawsuit was rejected by a federal judge in 2022, and this dismissal was confirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year.
“On appeal, Plaintiffs conceded that their arguments were limited to potential future hacking, and not based on any past harm,” the court wrote.
“In the end, none of Plaintiffs’ allegations supports a plausible inference that their individual votes in future elections will be adversely affected by the use of electronic tabulation, particularly given the robust safeguards in Arizona law, the use of paper ballots, and the post-tabulation retention of those ballots,” the court added.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to reconsider the federal court’s decision brings Lake’s and Finchem’s lawsuit to a close.
Republicans, including Lake, Finchem, and former President Trump, have tried to raise doubts about the 2020 and 2022 election results in states like Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, even though those election results have consistently been upheld.
The Hill has contacted Lake’s and Finchem’s attorneys for comment.
