Arizona Judge Rules Two of Kari Lake's Claims Challenging Governor Election Results Can Go to Trial
15:49 GMT 20.12.2022 (Updated: 04:28 GMT 25.12.2022)
© AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin
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A number of candidates have alleged that there were instances of voter fraud in the November 2022 midterm elections. One such candidate, Arizona Republican Kari Lake, has already filed a lawsuit, and her claim will be heard in part in court this week.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson on Monday evening ruled that eight of the 10 counts identified in Kari Lake's claim challenging Democrat Governor-elect Katie Hobbs' election victory did not fall under the proper criteria under Arizona law.
However, the judge allowed the remaining two counts to proceed: alleged intentional interference by election officials affecting Maricopa County ballot printers and chain of custody violations.
"Plaintiff must show at trial that the [Election Day] printer malfunctions were intentional, and directed to affect the results of the election, and that such actions did actually affect the outcome," the judge said.
Lake will have to produce evidence that Maricopa County employees had interfered with Election Day printers resulting in her losing votes. Lake claims that county employees intentionally interfered with the printers because Republicans prefer to vote on Election Day. As the Republican candidate, she was therefore the one who was most affected.
Similarly, Lake will have to present evidence that Maricopa County violated its election manual regarding the ballot chain of custody, namely evidence that county staff added about 300,000 ballots and that this led to her loss (according to the results, Kari Lake's opponent, Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs, won by a margin of about 17,000 votes).
BREAKING: Our Election Case is going to trial. Katie Hobbs attempt to have our case thrown out FAILED. She will have to take the stand & testify.
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 20, 2022
Buckle up, America.
This is far from over. pic.twitter.com/291EnXPP3U
Maricopa County and the governor-elect felt that the 10 counts could not be considered sufficient to proceed with the case. Moreover, the defense argued that all of Lake's claims were related to procedures put in place well before the election and that Lake should have filed such claims before Election Day.
"If there’s anything rotten in Arizona, it is what this contest represents," an attorney for Hobbs said at the hearing. "For the past several years, our democracy and its basic guiding principles have been under sustained assault from candidates who just cannot or will not accept the fact that they lost."
