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.
Would have thought this case made that statement in doubt, at least in states that are Blue or pale Red.
It was tongue n cheek but whatever. Maybe lawsuit number 72 will be a winner.
It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” Ronald Reagan
This case is headed to the Arizona Supreme Court. It’s not over.
Sure twitter was taking FBI money but that never... oh never mind.
The headline is wrong.
It should say “Mesa Traitor Judge Deprives Arizonans of their Right to Vote”.
This entire thing is becoming more of a circus every day. “The Steal” has almost become a parody of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories ever dreamed up. The John Birch Society and The Liberty Lobby could not have made a more “ Made for TV Movie” event than this. All of the hallmarks are here: A shadowy group, a cabal if you will, manipulates events. It’s always a smallish group, known as the Deep State, even when common sense would dictate what is being proposed would take thousands of people to pull ‘The Steal’ off, people from all walks of life at all levels of society, business, and government and literally not one individual gives up the group’s secrets. To top it off, anecdotal and other ‘evidence’ is found by intrepid sleuths but in a country of 330 million plus people, not one lawyer, judge, constable, agent of the courts, or basically anyone can be found to do anything with it (see part 1..”The Cabal” complete with sinister music). When people amplify the “Message” they are celebrated and showered with love from the true believers but when finally forced to admit the truth, they are bought agents or compromised and not worthy of the true believer any longer. They are now part of...The Cabal.
Sometimes a loss is just what it is...a loss.
You may not like the Turtle, but he was right on one thing: Candidate Quality Matters.
Wait, Sam from FTX gave his girl friend billions of dollars for her company to invest and she lost the money. Why was Sam arrested? It’s not perfectly clear Judge......
Because it was the only wy the settings could be changed. Judge just ignored the experts and chose the "Mistakes were made" excuse.
Sure would like to know ow many republicans voted for Hobbs in Maricopa county.
And Merry Christmas to you too delchiante from the guys at the office...:)
Sure there is. Believe in the Lord & Jesus as your savior. If nothing else it will bring you eternal life. 🙂
They are going to cheat and win regardless. Day of exposed the cheating big time.
What is the makeup of the Arizona Supreme Court?
The judge, as I understand it, held that Lake had to show intentional misconduct on the part of election officials. That should not be the standard.
The standard should be whether Lake made a showing that the election was tainted by irregularities that on a more probable than not basis affected the outcome. That is the only standard consistent with the constitutional principle of “one man, one vote.”
An appellate court could easily make a different decision by adopting this standard.
And who decides “candidate quality?” The Turtle??!!? That means if you’re not one of the “good ole boys” who’ll go along with the status quo, then the GOP won’t support you. How do we elect reformers then?
He is not stupid, he just depends on voters being stupid and so far he is Ok.
Rats win because they better understand how stupid the electorate really are.
Another thread, different source, 108 comments.........
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4118705/posts?q=1&;page=1
Trump was a pro-choice Democrat until 2011. What’s your point again?
The 10-page ruling is here.
https://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/4531/638074764564181393
I’m about to start reading it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.