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

Quick Take

A judge on Dec. 24 dismissed Kari Lake’s claim that there was no chain of custody for 300,000 mail-in ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona, during the 2022 election, yet posts on social media continue to spread the baseless claim. Every mail-in ballot in the county had a unique barcode and chain of custody documents to ensure security, election officials said.

Full Story

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 against Hobbs and Maricopa County officials on Dec. 9, Lake made several claims about alleged fraud, including a claim that