Dec 9 (Reuters) - Defeated Republican candidate Kari Lake sued state elections officials on Friday to challenge the counting and certification of the midterm election and ask to be declared the winner. The suit targets Lake's opponent, Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, who is currently Arizona's secretary of state, along with top officials in Maricopa County, according to the filing on Friday with the Maricopa County Superior Court. Lake was one of the most high-profile Republican candidates in the midterm elections to embrace former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud in 2020. The suit on Friday asks for an order declaring that Lake is the winner of the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, or alternatively throwing out the results and requiring the state's Maricopa county to conduct a new election. read moreLake, a former television news anchor, was one of a string of Trump-aligned Republican candidates who lost battleground state races in the midterm elections.

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