What's next for Lake, Finchem election lawsuits; Hobbs' lawyer calls challenges 'baseless'

The losing candidates for two of Arizona's top offices had initial hearings in their election-related legal challenges Tuesday, setting the schedule for what's to come.

Generally speaking, the two Republican filers — gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state hopeful Mark Finchem — allege they won the Nov. 8 election and have asked judges to overturn the outcome. Both were defeated by their Democratic opponents in the official election results, which were certified Dec. 5.

Such legal challenges are allowed under Arizona law, which also sets a relatively tight timeframe for deciding such matters. The initial step, scheduling hearings, took place Tuesday.

Here's what to know about the cases:

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Lake's hearing delayed after access information shared

Slated to start at 11 a.m., the hearing in Lake's case began about 40 minutes late because of the number of people — at least 700 at one point — who tried to access the online platform reserved for attorneys in the case instead of watching the livestream on the court's public website.

"I don't know how that link was so widely distributed, and I'm not going to go into it at this time with anybody speculating how that happened," Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson told attorneys and Lake, who gathered via the online meeting platform Microsoft Teams. "It is important for the public to have full view of this and access, but we cannot crowd the Teams platform such that the attorneys and the parties involved in this case aren't even able to participate."

It appeared the information for the meeting was shared by multiple sources, including by Lake who shared posts with the details on Twitter. Lake's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She has refused to speak to The Arizona Republic since July.

After the delay, Thompson directed attorneys for the defendants in the lawsuit to file motions to dismiss the case, a routine step, on Thursday. He scheduled a hearing on the motions for 9 a.m. Monday, and additional hearings to dig into Lake's claims, if necessary, on Dec. 21 and 22.

The lawsuit filed by Lake, a former television news anchor and first-time candidate for public office, is broad in its allegations. The 70-page filing asks the judge to declare Lake the winner of the election or at least order a recount of the vote in Maricopa County, where Lake claims issues with election equipment and long lines disenfranchised her voters, twice citing public polling as evidence of her victory.

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The defendants in the case are Katie Hobbs, Arizona's secretary of state and the Democratic governor elect; the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and its five members; Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and county Elections Director Scott Jarrett.

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Hobbs bested Lake in the contest to replace Republican Gov. Doug Ducey by just over 17,000 votes, less than one percentage point. She is set to be sworn into office Jan. 2.

Hobbs' attorneys contended hearings later next week won't happen.

"The secretary does believe that the court will be able to dispose of this case in its entirety on a motion to dismiss without the need for an evidentiary hearing," Hobbs' lawyer, Andy Gaona, said in the hearing. Bryan Blehm, Lake's attorney, signaled his team will also seek to review ballots themselves, and would file another court motion to do so.

Lake, in a statement after the judge adjourned the hearing, said she was confident that her case would "expose this election for the sham it was."

Attorney: 'Baseless' and 'sanctionable' claims from Finchem

A motion to dismiss also is expected in the separate election contest from Finchem.

He filed his lawsuit Friday with Congressional candidate Jeff Zink, who later dropped from the action. They initially challenged their losses by saying Arizona’s election was not full, fair or secure, and the court should therefore nullify it.

While setting up a schedule for the case Tuesday morning, Gaona called those claims “baseless” and “sanctionable.” Hobbs, who is Arizona's election chief, is named as a defendant in both cases.

Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian set a deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday for the motion to dismiss the case. She said she’d hear arguments at 10:30 a.m. Friday in a virtual proceeding where she’ll decide if further hearings to evaluate evidence are necessary.

If she authorizes an evidentiary hearing, Finchem's lawyer Daniel McCauley said he'll call witnesses and experts to testify on the candidates' behalf.

Finchem lost the election for secretary of state to Democrat Adrian Fontes by more than 120,000 votes. Zink lost his longshot Congressional race against incumbent Democrat Ruben Gallego by over 76,000 votes.

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Fontes also is a defendant in the case.

Abe Hamadeh, another GOP candidate who lost the race for attorney general to Democrat Kris Mayes by 511 votes, also has sued over the election results. His complaint seeks a court order declaring him the winner, and a hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in Mohave County Superior Court to set a schedule for the case, according to a judge’s order.

The race is one of three this year that is headed to an automatic recount because of its razor-thin margin.

Staff writer Ryan Randazzo contributed to this story.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

Sasha Hupka covers Maricopa County, Pinal County and regional issues for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip about county government or county services? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SashaHupka.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Next steps for Kari Lake, Mark Finchem election challenges scheduled