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.
This is what the answer is.
Not really sure, even if the judge ruled for Lake, what he could do about the matter.
What is odd in our various constitutions, including the US Constitution, is there is no remedy for fraud. If you can pull it off fine, you’re in office. No recourse until the next election.
But a recall yes, that’s a wise thing they have in Arizona. So April submit a petition.
Expect the same for 2024 and beyond until The END.
It's what the Democrats would do.
Tired of losing yet? This nonsense is never going to stop.
She provided proof of what happened but was unable to prove “intent” ? Under these rules (not to mention cowardly judges), it will be impossible to reform our elections.
O.M.G.
Well, at least now it’s crystal clear that the judicial system is hollowed out by rot and utterly useless. So is the legislative branch as currently constituted,nad of course the executive branch as currently constituted.
So, how to uproot the corruption? I think we know the answer...
When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
Thomas Jefferson quoting Baron de Montesquieu
Guess again. Not enough people are willing to make the sacrifice, and the DEMs know this. Heck, 95+% of Freepers would turtle up and sit at home
Make that pure EVIL!
And it should piss everyone off royaly too.
Does anybody really care?
Will that be a clean election, free of fraud?
If so I can’t imagine why.
It’s hard to imagine that the same folks that would go to any length to destroy Trump would also steal an election(s).
Agreed. There are no more political solutions.
Or...the ‘facts’ are in.
Opus?
Did anyone seriously think it would go the other way? They can’t have Lake win, she would expose the on-going corruption in AZ and I’m not talking just election corruption. There is plenty more going on in that state which is being fueled monetarily by the feds (as I’m sure is happening in other states). The current corrupt admin can’t allow the flow of money to stop and they’ll go to any lengths to make sure it is sustained. Think about it, Patriots and Repub’s vote on election day, funny that only on election day the machines malfunctioned. Demoncrats vote the easiest way via mail-in, so there were no machines to malfunction. It was planned that way.
Let’s hear your strategy, General.
Emphasis on the scare quotes.
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