A state judge rejected Kari Lake’s last bid to reverse her loss in the Arizona governor’s election on Saturday, discarding her remaining two charges of malfeasance by Maricopa County election staffers for insufficient evidence.
Ruling Finally Issued
The decision was issued by Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson during a two-day hearing in Phoenix that concluded on Thursday. It comes after more than six weeks of allegations by Lake, a Republican, that she had been cheated of triumph in the midterm elections last month.
Kari Lake and her followers alleged that election authorities in Maricopa County, the biggest county in the state, attempted to disenfranchise her supporters. Though they never presented proof of such deliberate wrongdoing or even indicated that any voters were disenfranchised.
Lake has since stated that she will challenge the ruling against her.
Katie Hobbs, the Arizona secretary of state and a Democrat, defeated Lake, a retired Phoenix television news reporter, by approximately 17,000 ballots. Hobbs gained her national fame when she fought attempts by Trump supporters to reverse the result in 2020.
"…citing lack of evidence…"
WHAAAAATTTT????🙄https://t.co/C02gP6rZbo
— Roger ZenAF (@RogerZenAF) December 24, 2022
Kari Lake’s legal action against Maricopa County and Katie Hobbs served as a unifying force for the election rejection campaign, which evolved out of Donald Trump’s unwillingness to concede his loss.
Lake has subsequently appeared with the previous president at his Mar-a-Lago club since Election Day, pledging to continue the battle.
The ruling undermines the attempts of the campaign to contest the outcome of the 2022 elections.
Republican politicians running on Trump’s assertions lost crucial elections in swing areas, and based on post-election polling, both Democrats and Republicans gained trust in the electoral system.
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
As per Democracy Docket, a leftist election law organization formed by left-wing campaign lawyer Marc Elias, 15 cases have been filed by nominees or their campaigns over federal, state, and legislative races ever since the year’s vote.
This is a significant decrease from the 36 cases filed in 2020, 16 of which were filed on behalf of Trump and his allies, with additional lawsuits brought by his supporters.
Trust in the Process Fails
A few of the officials involved in those lawsuits, such as Sidney Powell and Rudy W. Giuliani, have been later penalized by the court system for historic and consequential misuse of the judicial process.
They were also hit with penalties for providing inaccurate and deceptive statements due to the frequently conspiratorial and patently false assertions they made within and outside of the court at Trump’s behest.
Eight of Lake’s ten allegations were dismissed by the judge on Monday, along with a mishmash of conspiracy theories and ambiguous charges featured in a complaint submitted earlier this month.
He concluded that Lake may advance on two charges, but placed a significant hurdle in accordance with Arizona law.
