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.
You’re welcome.
I like to (at the very least) skim the major points of the rulings. This one was only 10 pages—not a big investment of time to read the whole thing.
Not being a lawyer or a judge, I can make no argument as to the cases cited by the judge do and/or should apply. But the arguments seem somewhat sound.
Much like Lake and Trump, you can not produce a shred of evidence that elections have been stolen. you can name call and all but it doesn’t change the fact that for better or worse (mostly worse) he did win. He is the President and holding your beath and stamping your feet like a petulant child will not change that. Trump lost due to his inability to act like a mature adult. I respect the office, usually in spite of who is in it. Careful throwing around labels like traitorous. It just makes you look more foolish as you bounce from one conspiracy theory and demagogue to the next. Merry Christmas.
Money corrupts!
Oh, I doubt that Hobbs thinks Maricopa County is incompetent.
She’s probably quite impressed with the way the Steal was carried out. All she had to do was sit on her butt and do what she was told by the DNC dirty tricks team.
Yes. And both parties importing 3rd Worlders and America-haters while having a lying media create fake narratives for decades is finally hitting its stride.
People are flat. People are defeated. Economy. Covid. Biden. Zelensky. J6.
Gonna take a miracle. Or Jesus returns.
Strategically, you may be correct.
I still think the machines were fixed.
Heaven, help us! 🌲
Well at least she got in obamas face on immigration. I doubt any bush would do that.
I’ve got to wonder if the objective to these lawsuits is not so much to win in court, but to taint public perception. You can’t keep going to the legal well with such weak cases and win in court. But look at all the “fix is in” or the judge is compromised responses here. That’s the victory I think they are seeking.
I can tell you’re a couple of sandwiches shy of a picnic so I’m just going to let this go.
You have outed yourself as either a democrat or a rino though so there’s that. Both are equally beneath contempt so it doesn’t really matter which one (or both) it is.
LEAVE!!
Re: 219 - Good point and shows what reading the ruling will yield (rightly or wrongly).
Instead, there is a cornucopia of quitter and whiner comments, with some veering off into any manner of theories.
Surprise!!!!! The criminals win again, shut up and go sit down
Your sick. Get some help. That’s as far as I’ll go on Christmas. You have been trolling for years.
Thank you. Hopefully your FBI is taking the day off..
To win an election, you must first be assigned to administer the election.
Then, you must be appointed the prosecutor for election fraud.
Then, you must have a judge in your corner.
Finally, you must have a press that ignores any wrongdoing or errors in the count.
If you have the above, your candidate may skip work and campaign from the basement of his summer home, while thumbing his nose at the public and their belief in elections.
We are there.
Where has it been verified that 42% of the vote has been “tainted?”
You make that statement like it’s a “given,” even calling them “actual damages.”
I admit that I didn’t watch or listen to the trial. Did someone present that 42% figure in argument or testimony, and if so was there any evidence to back that up?
Let me add a bit of a wrinkle when it comes to considering your 42% number. I’m going to use Maricopa County figures because Lake’s suit pertains to Maricopa County.
Maricopa reports that 1,311,734 votes (or 83.9%) were cast during “early voting” when NO printer/tabulation issues were experienced.
With 1,562,758 votes cast in the election, 42% would equal 656,358 “tainted” votes.
Only 248,070 votes were cast in person on election day in Maricopa County.
F off rino.
Wow. The liberal speaks.
Bwaaaahaaaaaahaaaaa!!! What a total rino loser. Don't you have some puppies to kill or conservatives to bash besides me?
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