On Saturday, a judge in Arizona rejected Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lawsuit over the 2022 election.
To recap, Townhall covered this week that a judge ruled on Monday that two of Lake’s 10 claims challenging the results of her 2022 race could go to trial. The two counts involved malfunctioning printers on Election Day and ballot chain of custody violations. The eight other counts were dismissed by Maricopa County Superior Judge Peter Thompson. Lake lost her race to Arizona’s secretary of state, Democrat Katie Hobbs, by about 17,000 votes.
Following the two-day trial, Thompson found that Lake had not proven that election officials committed intentional misconduct sufficient to change the outcome of the race, according to Politico.
“The margin of victory as reported by the official canvass is 17,117 votes – beyond the scope of a statutorily required recount,” Thompson wrote in his order. “A court setting such a margin aside, as far as the Court is able to determine, has never been done in the history of the United States. This challenge also comes after a hotly contested gubernatorial race and an ongoing tumult over election procedures and legitimacy – a far less uncommon occurrence in this country.”
Lake said that she would appeal the judge’s ruling.
“This Judge did not rule in our favor. However, for the sake of restoring faith and honesty in our elections, I will appeal his ruling,” Lake tweeted on Saturday.
My Election Case provided the world with evidence that proves our elections are run outside of the law. This Judge did not rule in our favor. However, for the sake of restoring faith and honesty in our elections, I will appeal his ruling.
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 24, 2022
Lake’s allegations over the election centered around Maricopa County, which accounts for 60 percent of Arizona’s population.
According to The Hill, Maricopa County Co-Elections Director Scott Jarrett testified that the county’s “root cause analysis” remains ongoing. And, officials reportedly said that printer heat settings contributed to the problems on Election Day.
Last month, Katie covered how Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates noted that dozens of polling locations experience major issues on Election Day. Complaints were documented from voters who claimed their votes were delayed or not counted at all.
And, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) sent a letter to Maricopa County Civil Division Chief Thomas Liddy explaining that election officials broke guidelines and disenfranchised voters.
"According to Maricopa County, at least 60 voting locations had issues related to some ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers having printer configuration settings that were non-uniform, which appeared to have resulted in ballots that were unable to be read by on-site ballot tabulators," Brnovich wrote.
"Based on sworn complaints submitted by election workers employed by Maricopa County, the BOD printers were tested on Monday, November 7 without any apparent problems. Many of those election workers report that despite the successful testing the night before, the tabulators began experiencing problems reading ballots printed by the BOD printers within the first thirty minutes of voting on Tuesday, November 8, 2022,” he continued, adding that "Arizonans deserve a full report and accounting of the myriad problems that occurred in relation to Maricopa County’s administration of the 2022 General Election.”
On Friday, an Arizona judge ruled against Arizona’s Republican candidate for attorney general, Abe Hamadeh, in his race. He lost to his Democratic opponent by 511 votes, a narrow margin that triggered an automatic recount, The Washington Post noted.