Republican lawsuit over Arizona election dismissed

PHOENIX (AP) – A judge dismissed a challenge filed by Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake over her election loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs. The judge rejected Lake’s claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling stations on polling day were intentional.

In his ruling on Saturday, Maricopa County Judge Peter Thompson said the court found no clear or compelling evidence of widespread election misconduct last November, as Lake alleges. Thompson was nominated by then-Republican Governor Jan Brewer.

Lake said in a statement that he will appeal the ruling.

The judge found that the witnesses presented by Lake had no personal knowledge of any harmful or illegal activity.

“This court cannot accept conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence,” Thompson testified.

Lake was defeated by Democrat Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes. She has since been one of the most vocal proponents of former President Donald Trump’s lies that he won the 2020 presidential election. She has made Trump’s lies the focus of his campaign.

While most other Republicans admitted their losses in the November election, Lake refused to. Instead, she asked the judge to declare her the winner or order another election in Maricopa County, where more than 60 percent of Arizona’s voters reside.

In his ruling, the judge acknowledged the “annoyance and frustration” of voters who experienced hardships in the election, but stressed that nullifying the results of an election “has never happened in the history of the United States.”

“However, the duty of this court is not just to hear the public complaint,” the judge continued. “It is to submit the arguments of the accuser and the defendant to the light of the court and the scrutiny of the law.”

Lake’s attorneys focused on issues with ballot printers at some polling stations in Maricopa. Faulty printers have produced ballot papers that are too light to be read by the tabulators at the polls. Voter ranks grew in some areas amid the confusion.

County officials say everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were counted, as those affected by the printers were taken to more sophisticated ballot boxes at the Electoral Department headquarters. They’re investigating the root of the printer problems.

Lake’s attorneys also said the chain of custody of ballots was broken at an outside facility, where a contractor scans mailed ballots to prepare them for processing. They said workers at the facility piled up their ballots by mail, rather than sending them through normal channels, and that documents documenting the transfer of ballots were also missing. The Province disputes the request.