Arizona court denies election challenge

PHOENIX — An Arizona appeals court has rejected Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, denying a request to throw out the results in the state’s most populous county and hold the election again.

In a ruling Thursday, the Arizona Court of Appeals wrote Lake, who claimed problems with ballot printers at some polling places were the result of intentional misconduct, presented no evidence that voters whose ballots were unreadable by tabulators at polling places were not able to vote.

The court said that even a witness called by Lake to testify had confirmed that ballots that couldn’t initially be read at polling places could still ultimately be counted.

And while a 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 said his conclusions were baseless.

The appeals court wrote 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.”

Shortly after the 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!”

Lake, who lost to Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes, was among the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s stolen-election claims, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. While most of the other election deniers around the country conceded after losing in November, Lake did not.