Judge Dismisses Kari Lake’s Election Lawsuit

An Arizona judge on Saturday ruled against Kari Lake in her challenge of Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs’s (D) victory, dismissing the highest-profile case challenging the midterm election results.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson following a two-day trial found that Lake had not proven that election officials committed intentional misconduct sufficient to change the race’s outcome.

Lake, who lost to Hobbs by about 17,000 votes, had alleged election officials in Maricopa County intentionally sabotaged her victory by causing Election Day printer malfunctions and violating chain of custody procedures.

Lake asked the judge to declare her the rightful winner or order a new election in Maricopa County. Hobbs will be inaugurated on Jan. 2.

Thompson previously dismissed eight other counts alleged in Lake’s lawsuit prior to trial, ruling that they did not constitute proper grounds for an election contest under Arizona law, even if true, but the judge permitted Lake an attempt to prove the two remaining counts in trial.

The ruling marks a major defeat for Lake, a vocal supporter of former President Trump’s unfounded 2020 election claims who has railed against the conduct of last month’s midterm elections, calling it “botched” and a “sham.” Lake sat in the courtroom during the trial but did not testify.

Her allegations largely focused on Maricopa County, which spans the Phoenix area and about 60 percent of Arizona’s population, the epicenter of voter disenfranchisement allegations in the midterms.

Election officials acknowledged that some of the county’s Election Day vote centers experienced printer malfunctions that prevented tabulators from reading ballots, but they insisted voters could utilize backup options to ultimately have their ballot counted…..

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Continue reading this article at The Hill.