Posted on 12/24/2022 12:34:42 PM PST by TigerClaws
PHOENIX - A judge has thrown out Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, rejecting 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 Gov. Jan Brewer, found that the court did not find clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct that Lake had alleged had affected the result of the 2022 general election.
Buy Lottery Tickets From Home Slips | Download on the App Store | Sponsored Lake, who lost to Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes, was among the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. While most of the other election deniers around the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake has not. Instead, she asked the judge to either declare her the winner or order a revote in Maricopa County.
Lawyers for Lake focused on problems with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of Arizona’s voters. The defective printers produced ballots that were too light to be read by the on-site tabulators at polling places. Lines backed up in some areas amid the confusion.
Kari Lake's team will have until 5 p.m. on Dec. 26 to file a response, and any motion for sanctions will need to be submitted by 8 a.m. that morning.
Click to open this PDF in a new window. County officials say everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were counted, since ballots affected by the printers were taken to more sophisticated counters at the elections department headquarters. They are in the process of investigating the root cause of the printer problems.
Lake’s attorneys also claimed the chain of custody for ballots was broken at an off-site facility, where a contractor scans mail ballots to prepare them for processing. They claim workers at the facility put their own mail ballots into the pile, rather than sending their ballots through normal channels, and also that paperwork documenting the transfer of ballots was missing. The county disputes the claim.
Lake faced extremely long odds in her challenge, needing to prove not only that misconduct occurred, but also that it was intended to deny her victory and did in fact result in the wrong woman being declared the winner.
Her attorneys pointed to a witness who examined ballots on behalf of her campaign and discovered 14 ballots that had 19-inch images of the ballot printed on 20-inch paper, meaning the ballots wouldn’t be read by a tabulator. The witness insisted someone changed those printer configurations, a claim disputed by elections officials.
County officials say the ballot images were slightly smaller as a result of a shrink-to-fit feature being 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 turning on the feature and that those ballots were duplicated so that they could be read by a tabulator. Ultimately, these ballots were counted, officials said.
A person who takes public-opinion polls testified on behalf of Lake, claiming technical problems at polling places had disenfranchised enough voters that it would have changed the outcome of the race in Lake’s favor. But an expert who was called to testify by election officials said there was no evidence to back up the pollster’s claim that 25,000 to 40,000 people who would normally have voted actually didn’t cast ballots as a result of Election Day problems.
Thompson had previously dismissed eight of the 10 claims Lake raised in her lawsuit. Among those were Lake’s allegation that Hobbs, in her 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 her claims of discrimination against Republicans and that mail-in voting procedures are illegal.
Hobbs takes office as governor on Jan. 2.
Her campaign released the following statement:
"Last month, Arizonans made their voices heard at the ballot box. They chose sanity over chaos, and commonsense, bipartisan results over division. The voters of Arizona – not the conspiracy-riddled, dark corners of the Internet – are the ones who choose our leaders. We’re pleased that the courts have upheld the will of the voters, and Governor-Elect Hobbs is continuing the work of preparing to take office as Arizona’s next governor."
Earlier on Friday, another judge dismissed Republican Abraham Hamadeh’s challenge of results in his race against Democrat Kris Mayes for Arizona attorney general. The court concluded that Hamadeh, who finished 511 votes behind Mayes and hasn’t conceded the race, didn’t prove the errors in vote counting that he had alleged.
A court hearing is scheduled Thursday to present results of recounts in the races for attorney general, state superintendent and for a state legislative seat.
I think Jussie Smollet’s trial was longer than this trial..What a sad joke.
So was Jussie's prison stay.
Same old, same old. This story never ends. I swear there is NO HOPE for the country. Our elections are fraudulent top-to-bottom, the fraudsters are firmly entrenched, and they have zero interest in returning to honest elections.
And this goes out on the news on Christmas Eve.
Corrupt to the core.
<>The days of legitimate elections are gone...<>
And yet we’ll keep voting in ‘24 . . .’26 . . . and pretend it matters.
Article V.
All of the affected ballots were ultimately tabulated. I’m just pointing out what the law required Lake to prove in order to win her case, and the judge determined that the evidence did not support her claims.
That is a BS ruling. it makes no senss, since there were enough mechanical failings to affect the outcome. See my post #98.
I am not surprised. A judge overturning an election is going to be rare, although it does happen.
As a non-Arizonan, I have to ask why Maricopa County conducts elections the way it does. As I understand it, instead of voting at a local precinct, a voter can vote at any of several ‘voting centers’. The complication being that the correct ballot for any given voter has to be printed up on the spot. And if the printers fail for any reason, chaos ensues. And at this election the printers apparently did fail for several different reasons.
Amazing how many like you get this wrong. She lost by vote fraud...all intentional just like Trump lost to non campaigning Biden.
My guess the Demonrats threatened the judge.
Unbelievable.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
On the contrary, it would have been unbelievable had the judge NOT ruled as he did, regardless of how ironclad Kari Lake’s evidence was. Sorry, but that’s just the way the judiciary works in countries controlled by corrupt governments.
As well as the McCain Republicans.
There were also many who didn’t trust her. She voted for John Kerry and Obama. She was pro-immigration, Pro-choice and pro-lgbtq. Then she ran full maga.
Want truth are you talking about? You’re probably very ill-informed. Only 17% of Democrats voted in that election and all polls had her winning up to the day of the election including exit polls and yet she lost. Furthermore they were problems with the ballots, machines and long lines where Will never got to vote. The bottom line is is they cheated and there’s no way you can say they did not.
What truth are you talking about? You’re probably very ill-informed. Only 17% of Democrats voted in that election and all polls had her winning up to the day of the election including exit polls and yet she lost. Furthermore they were problems with the ballots, machines and long lines where people never got to vote. The bottom line is is they cheated and there’s no way you can say they did not.
They have stolen three straight elections in Arizona. If there was a block feature here, you’d be gone.
The Fix began with Lyndon Johnson's first stolen election in Texas, they have continued to work on their model ever since. Computers and the media have finally perfected it and corrupt courts seem to want to do nothing to disrupt it.
Hope springs eternal but might I suggest we all consider the Jesus option.
I think the most disappointing thing in the last two years has been the fact that courts never ever look at any of corruption in the election and we can’t do anything about it.
LOL...”95+% of Freepers would turtle up and sit at home”..probably closer to 99% will stay out of anything.
Keyboard commandos are everywhere. Just read some of the “tough guy” responses that abound here. In reality they are probably over the hill, over weight, and all talk.
Wrapping yourself in the flag, calling yourself a patriot doesn’t equate to actually doing something to change the system. Becoming a poll worker, helping elect someone who supports your views, etc. goes a lot farther. In other words DO SOMETHING...besides vent on a internet forum.
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