Kari Lake election challenge rejected by Arizona appeals court
Barnini Chakraborty
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An Arizona appeals court on Thursday ruled that MAGA loyalist Kari Lake does not have the evidence to overturn the election results of her failed 2022 gubernatorial bid.
Lake has claimed, without proof, that her 17,000-vote loss to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) was the result of widespread election fraud and alleges her race was rigged from the start.
“Lake’s arguments highlight Election Day difficulties, but her request for relief fails because the evidence presented to the superior court ultimately supports the court’s conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results,” the appellate ruling reads.
Lake filed the appeal after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson tossed out her lawsuit seeking to reverse the results.
Thompson, who was appointed to the bench by former GOP Gov. Jan Brewer, ruled that the court had not found any “clear or convincing” evidence of the intentional misconduct Lake alleged.
In his December ruling, Thompson also said that none of the witnesses Lake offered up testified they had any personal knowledge of misconduct or wrongdoing, concluding that “the court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence.”
Lake has pointed to voting machine irregularities and printing problems as evidence that the deck was stacked against her.
She has already vowed to take her case to the Arizona Supreme Court.
“I told you we would take this case all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, and that’s exactly what we are going to do,” she tweeted after the ruling was handed down. “Buckle up, America!”
https://twitter.com/KariLake/status/1626369720294277120?s=20
Even before Lake lost her gubernatorial bid in November, the former Phoenix-area television anchor said she would only accept the results of her race if she won.
Lake is one of the country’s most vocal election deniers and has gotten former President Donald Trump’s stamp of approval to continue the fight.
Trump called into a rally Lake held in Scottsdale last month, predicting she would be “victorious” in her efforts.
Lake has spent months teasing “bombshell” revelations about the election on social media, but her claims have yet to materialize. Instead, Lake landed herself in hot water in January after tweeting pictures of 16 voter signatures. Arizona’s top election official, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, asked Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate Lake’s actions, claiming that posting the signatures violates state and election laws and is a felony. Arizona law states that records containing a voter’s signature “shall not be accessible or reproduced by any person other than the voter.”
Lake’s lawyer, Tim LaSota, called the push to investigate his client “another attempt to weaponize the justice system with phony allegations against a Republican.”
“Adrian Fontes selectively quotes the statute in an attempt to distort the law and smear Kari Lake in the process,” he said in a written statement. “Kris Mayes should immediately say that she will have no part in this shameful, disgusting effort.”
He added that the information Lake posted “came from the Arizona Senate investigation on acceptance of clearly mismatched signatures on early ballots, and Kari Lake has an absolute right under the First Amendment to republish the information presented to the Senate.”
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While some see Lake’s ongoing campaign as a sign democracy is working, others have questioned her intentions.
“Given that she hosted the local news for so many years, you have to think Kari Lake is smart enough to know she can’t overturn the results of the election,” David McLaughlin, a political analyst, told the Washington Examiner. “So, then the question becomes, why is she this desperate for attention?”