Republican candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake speaks at the Arizona Republican Party’s 2022 US Midterm Election Night Rally in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, November 8, 2022.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Judge dismisses Republican Kari Lake’s challenge to lose Arizona gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs, citing willful malpractice at polling place on Election Day dismissed her claim that it was the result of
In Saturday’s ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, appointed by then-Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, the court found clear and compelling evidence of widespread wrongdoing claimed by Lake. I discovered that I couldn’t. 2022 general election.
The judge said Lake’s witnesses had no personal knowledge of the willful misconduct.
“Courts cannot accept speculation or conjecture in lieu of clear and convincing evidence,” Thompson said.
Lake, who lost to Hobbes by just over 17,000 votes, is one of the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, and she made it the centerpiece of her campaign. Most of the other election opponents admitted after losing the November election, but Mr. Lake did not. Instead, she asked a judge to declare the winner or order a vote in Maricopa County.
Lake’s attorneys focused on ballot printer issues at several polling places in Maricopa County, home to over 60% of Arizona’s voters. Ballots produced by faulty printers were too thin to be read by on-site counters at polling stations. Amid the chaos, lines retreated in some areas.
County officials said the printer-affected ballots were being taken to a more sophisticated counter at Elections Bureau headquarters, so everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were tallied. We are investigating the root cause of the printer issue.
Lake’s attorneys also alleged that the chain of ballot storage was broken at an off-site facility where contractors were scanning mail ballots and preparing them for processing. He claims that he piled up his ballots by mail rather than sending them through the normal channel, and that he had also lost papers documenting the transfer of the ballots. is chanting
Lake must prove not only that cheating occurred, but that it was meant to deny her victory, and that in fact the wrong woman was declared the winner, and that her I faced very long odds on the challenge.
Her attorney pointed to witnesses who examined the ballots for her campaign and found 14 ballots with 19-inch (48-centimeter) ballot images printed on 20-inch paper. . Witnesses claimed that someone changed printer settings, a claim disputed by election officials.
County officials said the image on the ballot was slightly smaller as a result of a technical employee who was looking for a solution to an election day problem and opted for the shrink feature on the printer. About 1,200 votes were affected by turning on the feature, they said, and those votes were duplicated for tabulators to read. Ultimately, those votes were tallied, officials said.
A pollster testified on behalf of Lake that a technical problem at the polling place would have disenfranchised enough voters to turn the election in Lake’s favor. . But one expert asked by election officials to testify said that 25,000 to 40,000 people who would normally have voted did not actually go to the polls as a result of Election Day problems. He said there was no evidence to support the investigator’s claims.
Thompson had previously dismissed eight of the 10 claims filed by Lake in the lawsuit. Among them are Hobbes, who holds the position of Secretary of State, and Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer, who flagged posts on his social media containing election misinformation that could be deleted by Twitter. There was Lake’s allegation that he was involved in censorship. He also dismissed claims of discrimination against Republicans and her claims that the mail-in voting procedure was illegal.
Hobbes becomes governor on January 2nd.
Earlier Friday, another judge dismissed a challenge to the outcome of Republican Abraham Hamade’s battle with Democrat Chris Mays for Arizona Attorney General. The court concluded that Hamade, who did not concede the race by 511 votes over Mays, did not prove the error in counting the votes he claimed.
A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday and will present the results of a recount of seats for the Attorney General, the state Superintendent and the State Legislature.