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Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake scored a major legal victory on Monday when a state judge refused to dismiss her lawsuit alleging enough voting irregularities in Maricopa County that led to her narrow loss against Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
The judge’s decision means that Lake’s lawsuit now heads to trial barring any intervention from another court, Just the News reported.
Lake took to Twitter to announce the judge’s decision: “Katie Hobbs attempt to have our case thrown out FAILED. She will have to take the stand & testify. Buckle up, America. This is far from over.”
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.
Buckle up, America.
This is far from over. pic.twitter.com/291EnXPP3U— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 20, 2022
Hobbs has been certified the winner by about 17,000 votes, but Lake’s lawsuit alleges that due to a wide range of irregularities at polling stations, enough would-be Lake voters were prevented from casting a ballot, thereby disenfranchising them and robbing her of a victory. The suit alleges intentional mismanagement of the balloting process on Election Day, which saw long lines at polling places caused by printers running out of ink, vote tally machines being unable to read ballots, and other issues.
Just the News noted further:
Last week a Maricopa County Superior Court judge approved Lake’s request to inspect random ballots from the county, both in-person and mail-in, in order to prepare for a potential trial.
Left-wing attorney Marc Elias, however, noted that the judge dismissed eight of Lake’s ten claims and limited the remaining two allegations to “intentional misconduct,” meaning she must prove that printer malfunctions were intentional and affected the outcome of the contest. She must also demonstrate the faults in the ballot chain of custody were intentional and also impacted the final result.
Though polling averages had predicted her to sail to an easy victory, Lake, like many Republicans, underperformed significantly as a “red wave” failed to materialize during the 2022 midterm contests.
Last week, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson gave Lake a victory during a court proceeding in which he granted requests to conduct inspections of random ballots and ballot materials.
Thompson approved requests by Lake’s legal team to review 50 random “ballot on demand” printed ballots cast on Election Day, as well as another 50 early ballots cast from “six separate Maricopa County batches.” Furthermore, Thompson approved her to examine another 50 random ballot-on-demand printed ballots that were marked as spoiled.
Townhall reported that the ballot inspections are to commence on Tuesday.
Lake’s team praised the ruling. “I am thankful to Judge Peter Thompson and his team for the work they do, and we are confident that given the opportunity, we will expose this election for the sham it was,” Lake said in a statement.
Last week, she said that “if the process was illegitimate, then so are the results.” She has yet to concede to Hobbs, though state officials, including her own office, have certified her as the winner by about 17,000 votes.
Also last week, Lake provided an update to former White House strategist Steve Bannon about her lawsuit on his top-rated Real America’s Voice podcast. She said she believes her lawsuit will prevail and said she’s willing to “take it all the way to the Supreme Court” if necessary.
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Steve Bannon on the War Room podcast. “We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting.”
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Bannon in an earlier interview regarding her case.
“We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting,” she said.
U.S. District Judge John Tuchi of the District of Arizona rejected a Lake lawsuit earlier this month and then moved to fine her attorneys and those of Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem.
