An Arizona judge has dismissed Republican state Governor-hopeful Kari Lake’s last-ditch effort to contest the 2022 election in Arizona, following a three-day trial in mid-May.
Maricopa County Superior Judge Peter Thompson ruled May 22 that Lake’s legal team did not offer up “clear and convincing evidence or a preponderance of evidence” that would indicate wrongdoing in the 2022 Arizona election.
The Arizona Supreme Court gave Lake’s latest suit the green light in March after the justices ruled the lower court had wrongly dismissed Lake’s claims regarding the signature verification process during the election. “The process of verifying these signatures is the only security measure on mail-in ballots. The amount of time allotted to check these signatures was only 8 seconds, which is not humanly possible,” Lake said at the time. (RELATED: Kari Lake Is Closing In On Arizona Senate Bid: REPORT)
NEW: A judge has dismissed the only remaining legal claim in Kari Lake’s challenge of her loss in last year’s race for Arizona governor, affirming the election of Democrat Katie Hobbs.
By my count, that makes a total of EIGHTY SEVEN losses for Kari Lake — a new world record!! 🥇 pic.twitter.com/nR6MdZZcVp
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) May 23, 2023
During the three-day trial, Lake’s lawyers contested low-level screeners had noted inconsistencies in signatures on the ballots and sent them up to senior officials, where they were dismissed by high-level verifiers, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Lake, who fell short to Democrat Katie Hobbs by roughly 17,000 ballots, was tasked with not only proving signature verification methods were unsatisfactory but that failures in signature verification affected the outcome of the governor’s race.
“The evidence the Court received does not support Plaintiff’s remaining claim,” Thompson ruled.
Lake initially contested the election over problems with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County, which she argued had been an intentional sabotage. In Maricopa County, 60 malfunctioning voting machines reportedly created issues at 25% of the polling locations on Election Day, which was enough to change the outcome, Richard Baris, who managed exit polling in Arizona for conservative firm Big Data Poll, testified at the time.
Thompson, who also oversaw that case, acknowledged the frustration and angers of voters who felt they had been disenfranchised but ruled, “This Court’s duty is not solely to incline an ear to public outcry. It is to subject Plaintiff’s claims and Defendants’ actions to the light of the courtroom and scrutiny of the law.”
This latest dismissal is the final blow for Lake’s election claims, confirming once and for all that Katie Hobbs is Arizona’s governor, the ruling concluded.