Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake speaks during the Arizona Republican Party’s 2022 U.S. Midterm Midterm Election Night Rally in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S. November 8 2022.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
A judge has dismissed Republican Kari Lake’s challenge to her loss in Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, rejecting her claim that issues with ballot printers at some polling places on the day of the poll were the result of willful misconduct.
In a ruling on Saturday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, who was nominated by the Republican governor at the time. Jan Brewer, concluded that the court did not find clear and convincing evidence of widespread misconduct Lake allegedly affected the outcome of the 2022 general election.
The judge said Lake’s witnesses had no personal knowledge of willful 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, was among the most vocal Republicans of 2022 to promote former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she has made the centerpiece of her campaign. While most other election deniers across the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake did not. Instead, she asked the judge to declare her the winner or order a new vote in Maricopa County.
Lake’s attorneys focused on issues with ballot printers at select polling places in Maricopa County, which is home to more than 60% of Arizona voters. The faulty printers produced ballots that were too light to be read by on-site tabulators at polling stations. Lines have moved back in some areas amid the confusion.
County officials say everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were counted, as ballots affected by printers were routed to more sophisticated counters at Elections Department headquarters. They are investigating the root cause of the printer issues.
Lawyers for Lake also claimed that the chain of custody of the ballots was broken at an offsite facility, where a contractor scans mail-in ballots to prepare them for processing. They claim that workers at the settlement put their own mail-in ballots in the pile, rather than sending their ballots through normal channels, and also that documentation documenting the transfer of ballots was missing. The county disputes the claim.
Lake faced extremely long odds in her challenge, having to prove not only that a foul occurred, but also that she was meant to negate her victory and in fact resulted in the wrong woman being declared. winning.
His lawyers pointed to a witness who examined the ballots on behalf of his campaign and discovered 14 ballots containing 19-inch (48 centimeters) images of the ballot printed on 20-inch paper, which which means that the ballots would not be read by a tabulator. . The witness insisted that someone had changed those printer configurations, a claim disputed by election officials.
County officials said the images of the ballots were slightly smaller due to a shrink feature selected on a printer by a tech employee who was looking for solutions to Election Day issues. They say about 1,200 ballots were affected by activating the feature and these ballots were duplicated so that they could be read by a tabulator. Ultimately, those ballots were counted, officials said.
A person taking public opinion polls tested on Lake’s behalf, saying technical glitches at the polls disenfranchised enough voters that it would have changed the outcome of the race in Lake’s favor. But an expert who was called to give evidence by election officials said there was no evidence to support the pollster’s claim that 25,000 to 40,000 people who would normally have voted in fact did not vote. due to Election Day issues.
Thompson had previously dismissed eight of the 10 claims raised by Lake in his lawsuit. Among these was Lake’s allegation that Hobbs, in his capacity as Secretary of State, and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer engaged in censorship by flagging social media posts with election misinformation for possible removal by Twitter. He also dismissed his claims of discrimination against Republicans and that mail-in voting procedures are illegal.
Hobbs takes office as governor on January 1. 2.
Earlier Friday, another judge dismissed Republican Abraham Hamadeh’s challenge to the results in his race against Democrat Kris Mayes for Arizona attorney general. The court found that Hamadeh, who finished 511 votes behind Mayes and did not concede the race, failed to prove the vote count errors he alleged.
A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday to present the results of the recounts in the races for attorney general, state superintendent and for a state legislative seat.
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