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Arizona appeals court rejects Kari Lake's election challenge

An appeals court on Thursday rejected Kari Lake's lawsuit challenging November's gubernatorial election, saying she presented no evidence to back her allegations. Photo courtesy Kari Lake/Twitter
An appeals court on Thursday rejected Kari Lake's lawsuit challenging November's gubernatorial election, saying she presented no evidence to back her allegations. Photo courtesy Kari Lake/Twitter

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The Arizona Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected Republican Kari Lake's challenge of a lower court's decision that affirmed she had lost November's governor race to Democrat Katie Hobbs as she sought to have the election called in her favor.

"Lake's arguments highlight election-day difficulties, but her request for relief fails because the evidence presented to the superior court ultimately supports the court's 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," the three-judge panel said in the ruling. "Accordingly, we affirm."

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Lake, who twice attempted to bypass the appellate court and have the state's supreme court rule on her challenge, said Thursday night that she was taking her case to Arizona's high court.

"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," she tweeted. "Buckle up, America!"

The former TV anchor and election denier had asked the court to set aside Hobbs' gubernatorial win by 17,117 votes on accusations that the election results were tainted by misconduct and that illegal votes were cast.

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Of her initial 10 claims of misconduct, eight were dismissed by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge, permitting her only two of the allegations to be tested -- that an official interfered with ballot printers, which led to tabulators rejecting misprinted ballots that cost her votes; and that illegal votes were counted due to the handling of early ballots submitted on election day.

The lower court ruled against Lake on Dec. 24 following a bench trial that found she had failed to prove any aspects of her claims.

After both of Lake's asks for the Arizona Supreme Court to hear her case were turned aside, she argued before the appeals court that the lower court's ruling was tainted by legal and factual errors.

She argued that Maricopa County elections officials either negligently or intentionally failed to properly test ballot printers or injected misconfigured ballots that could not be read.

The appeals court rejected that claim, saying at most, evidence of misconduct was disputed while there was "ample evidence" to support the lower court's ruling.

The court said that, while Lake presented no evidence to show that voters whose ballots were unreadable by on-site tabulators were not county, her cybersecurity expert confirmed that any misconfigured ballots could be submitted physically and ultimately be counted.

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Her second complaint alleged Maricopa County failed to maintain proper documentation or follow procedures for early ballots submitted in drop boxes on election day, resulting in a failure to count an unspecified number of ballots.

However, the court said Maricopa County elections officials confirmed the existence of documentation for election-day early ballots and that Lake "failed to present evidence, as opposed to speculation," that any breach affected election results.

The court, however, denied Hobbs' request for an award of attorneys fees, stating she offered "no substantive basis for the award."

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