8th Lawsuit Challenging Arizona Election Dismissed

PHOENIX — A judge dismissed another lawsuit Tuesday that sought to decertify Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Arizona, marking the eighth failed case that challenged the election results in the state.

Pima County Judge Kevin White concluded that plaintiff Staci Burk lacked standing to contest the election because she wasn’t a registered voter at the time she filed her lawsuit and that she made her legal challenge after the five-day period for filing such an action had passed.

White also said that allowing the challenge to continue would "circumvent the strong public policy supporting prompt resolution of election cases."

Burk said in her suit that she was a qualified Arizona voter, but officials said they discovered she wasn’t registered to vote. She has since said she mistakenly thought “qualified electors” were people who were merely eligible to vote, and that her voter registration was canceled because election workers were unable to verify her address.

The decision came a day after Arizona’s 11 Electoral College members cast their votes for Biden, who won the state over Republican President Donald Trump by more than 10,000 votes. Arizona unanimously certified its election results on Nov. 30 after all 15 counties in the state had done so.

The lawsuit brought by Burk, who isn’t a lawyer but represented herself, is nearly identical to a lawsuit dismissed last week in federal court in Phoenix.

Burk’s suit alleged Arizona’s election systems have security flaws that let election workers and foreign countries manipulate results. Opposing attorneys said the lawsuit used conspiracy theories to make allegations against a voting equipment vendor without any proof to back up claims of widespread election fraud in Arizona.

No evidence of voter or election fraud has emerged in Arizona, which has seen eight lawsuits challenging the results of the state’s presidential vote. Two challenges focusing on the use of Sharpies to complete ballots were dismissed. Another lawsuit in which the Trump campaign sought inspection of ballots was dismissed after the campaign’s lawyer acknowledged the small number of ballots at issue wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

A judge dismissed a lawsuit in which the Arizona Republican Party tried to determine whether voting machines had been hacked. Then a separate challenge by Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward was tossed out by a judge who concluded the Republican leader failed to prove fraud and that the evidence presented at trial wouldn’t reverse Trump’s defeat. The chairwoman is still seeking to appeal that decision.

And a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by conservative lawyer Sidney Powell, who alleged widespread election fraud through the manipulation of voting equipment. Burk’s lawsuit repeated word-for-word some of the same allegations as Powell.

The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.