Republican candidate Kari Lake is taking legal action against Maricopa county election officials and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ office to decertify the election results after they allege 59% of the voting machines were faulty.

Lake tweeted last week after a preliminary hearing:

Today’s hearing regarding my lawsuit was telling. The Judge noted the volume of evidence my team compiled. The defendants’ team seemed desperate to sweep it under the rug… we will expose this election for the sham it was.

Lake is calling for a forensic audit of the election results and has alleged that there was voter suppression in Arizona. She is asking for an investigation of the printer-tabulator problems, an inspection of ballots and voter registration records, disqualification of illegal or duplicate votes, and potentially a re-do of the election.

Kurt Olson, one of the attorneys representing Lake, said it’s suspicious that Maricopa County did not test their machines or conduct their own forensic audit.

“[The anomalies were] intentional since they didn’t test all of their equipment and follow the appropriate processes when problems arose,” Olsen told the AZ Sun Times. “Why haven’t they done their own forensic audit 30 days later?”

The lawsuit alleges that between 15,000 and 29,000 voters were unable to properly cast their ballots. Lake was projected to win by about 70%, but the election results gave Hobbs a 17,117 margin ahead of Lake. The lawsuit states that “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election in Maricopa County.”

Hobbs’ campaign claims that Lake’s lawsuit is a “desperate attempt to undermine our democracy” and labeled it a “nuisance lawsuit.”

Lake is also suing Stephen Richer, Recorder for Maricopa County, for misconduct and conflict of interests due to his involvement with a political action committee set up to take sides in the elections Richer was overseeing.

The Lake suit tentatively goes to trial on December 21st. In the meantime,  a Superior Court Judge has granted Lake's petition to allow a representative to inspect:

• 50 random ballots cast on Election Day at six selected polling places in Maricopa County
• 50 random early ballots from six different Maricopa County batches
• 50 random ballots cast on Election Day that were marked as spoiled from six selected polling places in Maricopa County

The inspection will begin Tuesday morning.