A judge dismissed Republican Kari Lake’s challenge to her defeat in the Arizona gubernatorial race against Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
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Ross D. Franklin/AP
A judge dismissed Republican Kari Lake’s challenge to her defeat in the Arizona gubernatorial race against Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
PHOENIX – A judge dismissed Republican Kari Lake’s challenge to Her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs, refuted her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the result of intentional misconduct.
In a decision Saturday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, who was appointed by then Republican Governor Jan Brewer, found that the court found no clear evidence and convinced of the widespread misconduct that Lake alleges influenced the outcome of the investigation. general election in 2022.
The judge said Lake’s witnesses did not have any personal knowledge of the intentional misconduct.
“The court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence,” Thompson said.
Lake, who lost to Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes, is one of the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting the lies of former President Donald Trump’s election, which she has made headlines in his election campaign. While most other election deniers around the country conceded after losing the race in November, Lake did not. Instead, she asked the judge to declare her the winner or order a vote in Maricopa County.
In the ruling, the judge acknowledged the “anger and frustration” of voters who were inconvenienced during the election and noted that setting aside the outcome of an election “has never been done in American history.”
“But it is not only the duty of this Court to listen to the outcry of the public,” the judge continued. “It is about bringing Plaintiff’s claims and Defendant’s actions to the light of the courtroom and legal scrutiny.”
Lake’s attorney focused on issues with ballot printers at several polling places in Maricopa County, home to more than 60 percent of Arizona’s voters. The faulty printer produced ballots that were too pale to be read by on-site panelists at polling places. The lines are backed up in some areas amid the confusion.
County officials said everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were counted, as ballots affected by the printer were taken to more sophisticated counters at the election department headquarters. nominate. They are in the process of investigating the root cause of the printer problems.
Lake’s attorneys also claimed that the chain of monitoring ballots was broken at an offsite facility, where a contractor scanned ballots by mail in preparation for their processing. They allege that the workers at the facility cast their own vote-by-mail ballots into the pile instead of submitting their ballots through the usual channels, and that the paperwork proving the ballot delivery was also lost. County disputes the claim.
Lake faces extremely long odds in her ordeal, not only needing to prove that misconduct occurred, but also aimed at denying her victory and in fact led to the mistakenly declared the woman the winner.
Her attorneys pointed to a witness who examined ballots on behalf of her campaign and discovered 14 ballots with a 19-inch (48 cm) image of the ballot printed on the paper. 20 inches, which means these ballots will not be read by the tally maker. . The witness claims someone altered that printer configuration, a claim disputed by election officials.
County officials said the ballot image is slightly smaller because the shrink-to-size feature was selected on a printer by a technician looking for a solution to Election Day problems. They say about 1,200 ballots were affected with the feature turned on, and that those ballots were copied for readability by tabulators. In the end, these ballots were counted, officials said.
A pollster testified on behalf of Lake, claiming that technical problems at the polling stations disenfranchised enough voters that it could change the outcome. race in Lake’s favor. But an expert called by election officials to testify said there was no evidence to support the pollster’s claim that the 25,000 to 40,000 average people who voted actually didn’t vote due to problems. on Election Day.
Thompson previously denied eight of the 10 claims Lake made in her lawsuit. Among them were Lake’s allegation that Hobbs, as secretary of state, and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer engaged in censorship by flagging social media posts with false information. about the election so Twitter can delete. He also refuted her claims that it discriminated against Republicans and that the vote-by-mail procedure was illegal.
Hobbs took office as governor on January 2.
Earlier on Friday, another judge dismissed Republican candidate Abraham Hamadeh’s challenge to the results in his race with Democrat Kris Mayes for the position of Arizona attorney general. The court concluded that Hamadeh, who completed 511 votes behind Mayes and did not concede the race, failed to demonstrate the counting errors he had alleged.
A trial is scheduled for Thursday to present the recount results in the races for attorney general, state superintendent and a state legislative seat.
