Arizona judge allows defeated GOP candidate Kari Lake to bring claims of election misconduct to trial

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake will have a chance to challenge her defeat to her Democratic opponent in court after a judge on Monday refused to throw away her final claim of election misconduct.

Lake has refused to concede to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, saying widespread misconduct in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county, resulted in her loss in the November 2022 election. Shortly after her defeat, the Trump-backed former television anchor filed a lawsuit alleging the election was rigged.

Over the past six months, most of the lawsuit has been dismissed by the courts. But in a ruling issued Monday night, Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson said Lake should be allowed to present her case about whether or not election workers in Maricopa verified signatures on ballot affidavit envelopes.

Lake, who lost the election by about 17,000 votes, had previously alleged that local election officials intentionally caused printers to malfunction on Election Day.

In December, she requested the court to declare her as the winner.

That challenge was rejected later that month after the judge found no evidence of the alleged misconduct. Lake appealed the decision, but two months later an appeals court rejected her assertions.

Earlier this month, the Arizona Supreme Court sanctioned Lake’s lawyers $2,000 for making “false factual statements” when they said more than 35,000 ballots had been improperly added to the total count of votes.

In her last remaining claim, Lake’s lawyers said election officials weren’t able to properly verify signatures on ballots and accepted thousands of ballots that had been previously rejected. She alleged at least 164,000 votes were counted, claiming three workers said they found mismatched signatures on 15% to 40% of ballots they verified.

Last week, attorneys representing Hobbs told the court Lake’s claims were based on unsubstantiated speculation. They also raised questions about whether the three employees even knew the outcome of the flagged ballots.

On Monday, the judge allowed Lake to move forward with her challenge to ballot signatures in Maricopa. A three-day day trial is set to begin Wednesday.

With News Wire Services