After Kari Lake seized for weeks on dubious voter fraud charges, an Arizona judge has dismissed most of her election lawsuit contesting the win of her opponent, Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs (D). According to Lake, election officials in Maricopa County, which contains the majority of the state’s population, committed malfeasance and counted hundreds of thousands of illegitimate ballots, so the judge should overturn Hobbs’ certified victory on 10 counts.
Judge Peter Thompson of the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled Monday night that eight of the ten counts should be thrown out because, even if accurate, they do not meet the standards for bringing election challenges under Arizona law.
Nonetheless, the trial will continue on two other counts that Thompson said, if proven, could state a claim under the statute governing election challenges: allegations of intentional interference by election officials with Maricopa County ballot printers, and allegations of chain of custody violations.
A trial on the charges that Lake, a Trump loyalist, that has been consistent about voter fraud claims in the 2020 election and refused to say if he would accept the results of this year’s election before Election Day will begin later this week.
Since the midterms, Lake has been vocal in her criticism of Maricopa County authorities and Hobbs, calling the election “botched” and a “sham” and threatening to take her case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Maricopa County and Hobbs, in her roles as secretary of state and gubernatorial candidate, have argued to have all 10 counts dismissed because they disagree with Lake’s statements.
Many of Lake’s charges are based on procedures put in place before last month’s election, thus Hobbs and the county argued for a complete dismissal by stating that the claims had to be brought before Election Day. In addition, they claim that the Lake campaign’s counterarguments are equally without substance and would be judged to be such in court.
At the hearing, a counsel representing Hobbs remarked, “If there’s anything rotten in Arizona, it is what this contest represents.” Over the course of the last few years, our democracy and its fundamental ideals have been under constant attack by defeated politicians who refuse to acknowledge the results of the election. The court system has been an anchor against internal attacks on our democratic system.
After certain polling places in Maricopa County, which includes the Phoenix area, experienced printer issues on Election Day, the county became a focal point in claims of voter disenfranchisement.
CLICK HERE FOR AN AD FREE EXPERIENCE AND ACCESS TO VIP ARTICLES
Election officials maintain affected voters could have used one of several backup alternatives, but Lake said election officials purposely damaged her victory and their backup options still disenfranchised votes, despite the fact that Election Day voters in Arizona tend to prefer Republicans.
In the first remaining count, the judge noted in Monday’s order, “Plaintiff must show at trial that the [Election Day] printer problems were purposeful, and directed to impact the results of the election, and that such activities did really affect the outcome.”
Lake asserts that more than 300,000 ballots in Maricopa County lacked the required chain of custody documents, casting doubt on the validity of the remaining tally. The county denies this, saying Lake is just unfamiliar with the different paperwork requirements and that Maricopa already has all it needs on file.
The judge also ruled against a number of other claims made by Lake’s campaign in court filings, including a claim that some mail ballots were counted despite mismatched signatures. Lake had also attacked Hobbs’s office as Arizona secretary of state for reporting many tweets with election-related misinformation. The tweets in question were eventually deleted by Twitter.
Lake’s attorney stated during a hearing on Monday that the case “is also about a secret censorship operation set up by the government that would make Orwell blush.” Orwell is the author of the dystopian classic “1984”.
Many Republican candidates, including Lake, are contesting the results of the election. Both the election challenge brought by Hobbs’ Democratic opponent and the one filed by Mark Finchem (R), who lost his bid for Arizona secretary of state, have been thrown out by judges.
Abe Hamadeh, a Republican running for attorney general in Arizona, has also challenged the results of his campaign. Hamadeh is currently trailing his Democratic opponent by 511 votes out of 2.5 million ballots, which triggers an automatic recount. Hamadeh’s lawsuit, in which the Republican National Committee has intervened, is still pending after a state judge in Mohave County, Arizona, heard arguments on a dismissal request on Monday.
