- MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is bankrolling what he calls a nationwide series of lawsuits to stop the use of voting machines.
- Lindell claimed he paid around $500,000 for the first lawsuit filed on Friday in Arizona.
- The filing lists Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem as plaintiffs.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is bankrolling what he calls a nationwide series of lawsuits to stop the use of voting machines in local and national elections.
Speaking to Insider on Sunday, Lindell said that his attempt to halt the use of electronic voting machines in all 50 states has kicked off, with the first injunction filed in Arizona on Friday.
The filing lists Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Rep. Mark Finchem as plaintiffs. Lake and Finchem — funded by Lindell and represented by lawyers including Alan Dershowitz — are suing Kathleen Hobbs, Arizona's Secretary of State, and members of the Maricopa and Pima County boards of supervisors.
The filing bills itself as "a civil rights action for declaratory and injunctive relief to prohibit the use of electronic voting machines." It also calls for Arizona authorities to halt the use of any electronic voting system until the "system is made open to the public and subjected to scientific analysis by objective experts," who will "determine whether it is secure from manipulation or intrusion."
The complaint from Lake and Finchem says the initiative is "not an attempt to undo the past" or re-litigate the 2020 election, arguing instead that the use of "unverified electronic voting machines" undermines public confidence in the validity of future election results.
Maricopa County was where the Cyber Ninjas' audit of the vote confirmed Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election and found 261 fewer votes for Trump. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump baselessly alleged in October that there were "fictitious" votes cast in Pima County, Arizona's second-most populous county.
Trump expressed approval of Lake and Finchem's suit during his rally in Ohio on Saturday.
"Every state should follow the lead of the Patriots in Arizona where yesterday Kari Lake, Mark Finchem, and others filed a lawsuit to ban electronic voting machines and replace them with a transparent hand count," Trump said. "Hand, hand, hand count system! Paper — paper, paper, paper! We don't have to worry about signals being sent down from the sky!"
Lindell told Insider that the costs for the legal fees involved in the Arizona suit amounted to around $500,000. He said that the subsequent lawsuits — for which he intends to file 49 more states — would cost him "around $100,000 to $200,000" per legal battle.
"I'm gonna do as many as I can afford," said Lindell, who previously claimed that he had spent tens of millions of his money pushing the former president's voter-fraud claims. "Right now, I'm the one financing them, so I'm going to keep doing them."
Lindell added that injunctions in South Dakota, Minnesota, Texas, Wisconsin, Alabama, Louisiana, and Colorado are coming up next.
He said he appreciated Trump's shoutout at the Ohio rally and the former president's apparent appreciation of his efforts.
"I think everybody there, including him, appreciates it. I'm not gonna back down, I'm gonna keep trying to help our country and get this fixed, and get the machines gone," Lindell said.