Judge declines to require hand count of Arizona ballots

By JONATHAN J. COOPER
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge has refused to require that Arizona officials count ballots by hand in November. U.S. District Judge John Tuchi dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Republican nominees for governor and secretary of state based on false claims of problems with vote-counting machines. Kari Lake, who is running for governor, and Mark Finchem, a secretary of state candidate, won their GOP primaries after aggressively promoting the narrative that the 2020 election was marred by fraud or widespread irregularities. Their lawsuit repeated unfounded allegations about the security of machines that count votes.