Arizona’s Secretary Of State Says Kari Lake’s Tweet Broke State Law
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Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) on Monday requested an investigation and “appropriate enforcement action” against Kari Lake, the defeated election-denying Republican gubernatorial candidate, over a tweet that allegedly violates state law.
In a letter addressed to the state’s attorney general, Kris Mayes (D), Fontes argues that Lake’s post from Jan. 23, in which she falsely claims nearly 40,000 ballots were “illegally counted,” referencing an illustration with 16 voter signatures, violates a subsection of Arizona law.
“The protections afforded by this subsection prohibit posting any information derived from voter registration forms or precinct registers to the internet, and under no circumstance may a person other than the voter or an statutorily authorized person reproduce a voter’s signature,” Fontes writes in the letter, cited by MSNBC.
Fontes said the post could constitute a felony and called on Mayes to further investigate.
Lake has not commented on the matter.
In the tweet, Lake claims the graphic is proof of the election irregularities she has been falsely calling out.
“I think all the ‘Election Deniers’ out there deserve an apology,” she wrote.
Lake, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has continued to contest her loss to Katie Hobbs in November’s midterm election. Hobbs won by just over 17,000 votes.
On Sunday, Lake hosted a “Save Arizona Rally,” where she continued to spread lies about the race.
During the event held in Scottsdale, Arizona, Trump spoke via phone to her supporters, claiming Lake will be “victorious” in her efforts to overturn the results.
Trump, who has already declared his candidacy for 2024, has not conceded his own loss to now-President Joe Biden in 2020 and has continued pushing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
Lake’s efforts to take her case to the courts have failed.
In December, a judge tossed a lawsuit in which she claimed issues with ballot printers at some polling stations on Election Day were intentional, according to The Associated Press.