No Evidence for Kari Lake’s Claim that Maricopa County Ballots Lacked Chain of Custody Records

On Nov. 14,  the Associated Press called the Arizona gubernatorial race for Democratic former Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who won 50.3% of the vote when all the ballots were tallied in her race against Republican candidate Kari Lake. 

But Arizona — Maricopa County in particular — has been the target of false and misleading claims and accusations of election fraud spread by Lake and others since Election Day. 

In a civil suit filed against Hobbs and Maricopa County officials on Dec. 9, Lake made several claims about alleged fraud, including a claim that county election officials violated state law for nearly 300,000 mail-in ballots because there were no chain of custody documents for those ballots.

On page 45 of the filing, the suit says, “Maricopa County failed to maintain and document the required secure chain of custody for hundreds of thousands of ballots, in violation of Arizona law.”

Lake alleges that there are “whistleblowers and witnesses with first-hand knowledge” that the county violated the state chain of custody rules, which allowed an unknown number of ballots to be added to the count by county employees.

The county filed a motion to dismiss the suit on Dec. 15, claiming Lake misunderstood the forms required in its chain of custody process. 

The county also said Lake’s claim “regarding chain of custody is based on an incomplete understanding of election administration and baseless speculation about what could happen at the County’s contractor, Runbeck Election Services – not on any allegations of what actually happened.”

On Dec. 19, Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled Lake’s lawsuit could go to trial on two out of 10 initial counts — including the claim about the ballot chain of custody and a claim that some ballot printers malfunctioned because of an “intentional action” by an election official on Election Day, causing Lake to lose.  

A witness for Lake, Heather Honey, an investigator and supply chain auditor, testified at trial that county election officials had not provided her with the delivery receipt forms that would show the county followed chain of custody procedures for ballots placed in drop boxes on Election Day. But during cross-examination by the county’s attorney, Honey testified that the forms did exist and that she had seen them in photos — they just weren’t physically provided through a public records request.

Honey also testified that she was told that employees of Runbeck Election Services, an election software company headquartered in Phoenix, submitted about 50 ballots for family and friends into the ballot stream improperly. Honey later said she couldn’t identify those 50 ballots.

On Dec. 24, Thompson dismissed the last two counts of Lake’s suit, saying that Lake failed to provide evidence that officials intentionally took steps that changed the election outcome.

The judge said, “Every single witness before the Court disclaimed any personal knowledge of such misconduct. The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence.” 

Days later, the judge ordered Lake to pay Hobbs $33,040 for witness fees.

Lake appealed Thompson’s ruling on Dec. 27, asking the state Court of Appeals to take “special action” and expedite her request to throw out the results of the election. The court agreed to hear the case on Feb. 1, KGUN reported.

Lake also filed a petition to transfer the appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court on Dec. 30. The Supreme Court denied Lake’s request, saying Lake needs to go through the appeals court process.

Meanwhile, claims that there was no chain of custody for ballots in Maricopa County are still spreading on social media. 

In a Dec. 29 interview with conservative commentator Larry Elder, Lake claimed she “won in a landslide,” saying “almost 300,000 ballots had no chain of custody” and “came out of who knows where.” Lake’s interview was shared in a Facebook post by Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers that received more than 106,000 views.

A Facebook video posted on Dec. 29 shared the claim that chain of custody documents for 300,000 ballots don’t exist; the post has received nearly 1,500 views and 1,700 likes. The video includes the image of a tweet from a lawyer that said, “Records required to certify chain of custody vanished, as unaccounted ballots cast election in doubt.”

But there’s no basis for the claim that the chain of custody documents “vanished.”

As we said before, Lake’s witness testified that the forms do exist and that she has seen photos of them.

Matthew Roberts, spokesperson for the Maricopa County Elections Department, told us in an email on Jan. 6 that the county followed all the required chain of custody policies and procedures during the 2022 election.

“There are robust tracking and security procedures in place to document and ensure proper chain-of-custody of early ballots on Election Day. These policies and procedures were followed on Election Day, as well as throughout the early voting period,” Roberts said. “At no point during the process were chain of custody policies broken or procedures not followed and documented.”