The Arizona Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected a challenge by the state’s 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, denying her request to throw out one county’s election results.
Lake lost the election to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) by a little more than 17,000 votes. Lake has asserted ever since that problems with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of Arizona’s voters, left citizens unable to vote or for their votes to go uncounted—a charge county election officials have rebuked.
The officials have said that affected ballots were taken to the more sophisticated counters at the elections department headquarters in downtown Phoenix, and they insist that all ballots were counted. Further, the officials say voters were able to go to any polling place in the county on Election Day, many of which had little or no line with wait times posted online.
During the Appeals Court hearing, one pollster who testified on behalf of Lake claimed the polling place problems had disenfranchised enough voters to change the outcome in Lake’s favor. The court, however, said his conclusions were baseless.
The Appeals Court wrote that Lake’s appeal failed because the evidence supports the 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.”
Following the court’s ruling, Lake tweeted, “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. Buckle up, America!”
In December, Lake was ordered by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to pay $33,000 in legal fees to then-Governor-elect Hobbs to compensate expert witnesses against Lake’s dismissed claims of election fraud.
