PHOENIX (AP) — 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.
Peter Thompson, the former Republican Governor, was the Maricopa Superior Court Judge. He made his decision on Saturday. Jan Brewer found that there was no clear and convincing evidence that Lake’s widespread misconduct had affected the outcome of the 2022 general elections. In a statement, Lake said she will appeal the ruling.
The judge said Lake’s witnesses didn’t have any personal knowledge of intentional 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 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. Lake, unlike most election deniers across the country, has not conceded to losing their November races. Instead, she asked the judge to either declare her the winner or order a revote in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of Arizona’s voters.
In the ruling, the judge acknowledged the “anger and frustration” of voters who were inconvenienced in the election and noted that setting aside the results of an election “has never been done in the history of the United States.”
“But this Court’s duty is not solely to incline an ear to public outcry,” the judge continued. “It is to subject Plaintiff’s claims and Defendants’ actions to the light of the courtroom and scrutiny of the law.”
Lawyers for Lake focused their attention on issues with some Maricopa County polling places’ ballot printers. The ballots printed by the defective printers were too small to be read at polling stations by the tabulators on site. The confusion caused some lines to clog.
County officials claim everyone had the opportunity to vote. Since ballots that were affected by the printers weren’t counted at the elections headquarters, more sophisticated counters were used to verify the results. They are currently investigating the cause of the printer issues.
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 claimed that workers at the facility placed their own mail ballots in the pile and did not send them through the normal channels. Additionally, they claimed that the paperwork that documented the transfer of ballots was missing. The county refutes the claim.
Lake had to prove that misconduct took place and that she was not trying to deny victory. In the end, Lake was forced to face a lot of odds.
Her attorneys pointed to a witness who examined ballots on behalf of her campaign and discovered 14 ballots that had 19-inch (48-centimeter) images of the ballot printed on 20-inch paper, meaning the ballots wouldn’t be read by a tabulator. The witness claimed that someone had changed the configurations of those printers. This claim was disputed by election officials.
Officials in the county claim that the ballot images are slightly smaller because a shrink to fit feature was selected by a tech worker who was searching for solutions to Election Day problems. The county officials claim that about 1,200 ballots were affected when the feature was turned on. They also say that duplicates of those ballots were made so they could be viewed by a tabulator. Officials said that these ballots were eventually counted.
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.
A witness called on behalf of Lake acknowledged that that people who had their vote rejected by tabulators or ballot-on-demand printers — an occurrence for many voters — could still cast a ballot and have it counted.
“The BOD printer failures did not actually affect the results of the election,” the judge said.
Eight of the 10 claims Lake made in her lawsuit were dismissed by Thompson before. Among those was 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 rejected her claims that Hobbs discriminated against Republicans and that mail in voting procedures were illegal.
Hobbs assumes office as governor January 2.
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.
Thursday’s court hearing will be held to present the results from recounts in the races of attorney general, state superintendent, and for a seat in state legislature.