(PatriotWise.com) – Last Saturday, a Maricopa judge threw out Kari Lake’s lawsuit challenging her defeat in the Arizona gubernatorial election and rejected her claim that the printer problems at some Maricopa polling places were the result of intentional misconduct.
A witness who examined ballots for the Lake campaign testified to finding 14 ballots that had 19-inch images of the ballot printed on 20-inch paper, meaning the ballots couldn’t be read by a tabulator. The witness claimed someone changed the printer configurations.
In his Saturday decision, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson said Lake’s team had to show that someone intentionally caused the county’s printers to malfunction and that there were enough “identifiable” votes lost to change the outcome of the election.
The judge said Lake’s team failed to meet that standard since “every single witness” that appeared in the trial “disclaimed any personal knowledge of misconduct.” He said the court “cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence.”
Judge Thompson concluded that there was no clear or convincing evidence of misconduct. He also reaffirmed Democrat Governor-elect Katie Hobbs’ victory.
After the judge’s ruling, Lake said on Twitter that she would appeal.
Rather than leave well enough alone, in another tweet, Lake quoted an opinion column by Townhall contributor Rachel Alexander in which Alexander cites “legal experts” who claim that Judge Thompson’s decision was “ghostwritten” by “left-wing attorneys like Marc Elias.”
Alexander’s column received significant pushback on social media over her many unsubstantiated claims.
Unsurprisingly, Lake deleted her unfounded tweet.
Lake, who lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by over 17,000 votes, filed suit asking that the judge either declare her the winner or order a revote in Maricopa County.
Judge Thompson previously dismissed 8 of the 10 claims in Lake’s lawsuit but allowed her to attempt to prove the two remaining claims involving printer problems and Maricopa County’s ballot chain of custody during last week’s 2-day trial.
After the case was thrown out, attorneys representing Katie Hobbs filed a motion accusing Lake and her attorneys of violating legal ethics rules in bringing the lawsuit since Lake’s team knew their challenges were unsubstantiated. Hobbs’ attorneys asked the judge to sanction Lake and her legal team.
While Judge Thompson refused to impose sanctions, last Tuesday, he ordered Lake to pay Hobbs $33,040.50 in compensation for expert witness fees and again reaffirmed that Katie Hobbs won the election.
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