Kari Lake Appeals Judge’s Dismissal Of Arizona Election Challenge
OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
During the last hours of the midterm election in Arizona, Republican Kari Lake was in the lead when votes suddenly appeared that put Democrat Katie Hobbs over the top. The fact that there were massive problems for several days including missing ballots, broken machines, and voters being turned away from polling stations and directed to other stations in other districts would be enough, one would think, to question the results. In the history of the United States, questionable elections have in the past resulted in a do-over or hand count.
Kari Lake did not take Hobbs’ declared win at face value and brought suit to bring the questionable aspects to justice. Cheers from those who want accountability for voting snafus arose. But the law requires certain proof that it was ruled Lake did not have.
As Red State notes:
Ultimately, as I wrote initially when the lawsuit was filed, it was always likely to be too difficult to prove intent (required under the law) and that voters were actually disenfranchised. Supposition, as much as it makes for good internet chatter, wasn’t going to do it here, and without direct evidence that ballots were improperly discarded or tampered with (i.e. votes changed somehow), the end result was inevitable.
Lake did not win her case, but that was not enough for Hobbs.
Lawyers for Maricopa County and Hobbs, representing her in her roles as both the outgoing secretary of state and governor-elect, had requested about $695,000 in attorney fees and other legal costs, including the $33,000 in fees for witnesses. The attorneys argued Lake’s lawsuit was groundless and brought in bad faith.
The judge did not agree to the bulk of the costs.
AP reports that a judge has ordered Kari Lake to pay $33,000 in fees for witnesses who helped defend election officials against Lake’s failed challenge of her defeat to Katie Hobbs, but rejected a request for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for the attorneys who defended the officials.
In an order Tuesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson declined to impose sanctions against Lake and her lawyers, saying Lake’s failure to prove her case doesn’t “equate to a finding that her claims were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith.”
Thompson, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, pointed to a statistical analysis by a pollster who had testified on behalf of Lake. The witness, who conducts public-opinion polls and is not an election worker, claimed technical problems at polling places on Election Day had disenfranchised enough voters that it would have changed the outcome of the race in Lake’s favor.
Red State noted:
With the dismissal of Kari Lake’s lawsuit over Arizona’s 2022 election, a contentious saga was brought to an end. Despite issues with voting machines and questions about the chain of custody of ballots, the judge in the case said the Lake campaign did not meet the legal threshold needed to provide any remedy.
Regardless, Hobbs, being the insufferable Karen that she is, couldn’t just walk away victorious. She instead requested the judge sanction Lake as punishment for even challenging the election. On that front, Lake has finally scored a win, albeit one that probably won’t be much consolation.
According to Just The News:
“There is no doubt that each side believes firmly in its position with great conviction,” Thompson said in his ruling Tuesday, The Hill reported. He said Lake did not provide clear and convincing evidence but did not reach the standard for sanctions to be imposed.
Red State
continues:
That’s undoubtedly the right decision. The idea that Lake should be sanctioned for bringing completely understandable concerns before the court is ludicrous and reeks of authoritarianism. Laws allowing the challenging of elections exist, and no one should be punished for using them.
Maricopa County’s election was a joke. Lake may not have met the legal standard needed to overturn the election, but there is no doubt there were major issues that were and remain completely unacceptable. Sanctioning Lake would have amounted to a stamp of approval for a system that melted down in more ways than one. Maricopa County is the poster child for why so many people don’t trust our election processes, and there should be accountability for that.
Unfortunately, Hobbs will almost certainly do nothing to clean up the mess, which is a real shame. Heck, I’d expect her to exacerbate the problem. But hey, that’s what Arizonans voted for if the totals are to be believed, and they are going to get it good and hard. Will that finally wake up enough voters so these razor-thin margins aren’t a factor in 2024 and 2026? I guess we’ll find out.
Thanks to Lake’s lawsuit, attention is brought to the fiasco in voting and the hope is that in the 2024 election such razor-thin margins in wins as well as the other disasters will not be tolerated.
https://republicbrief.com/kari-lake-appeals-judges-dismissal-of-arizona-election-challenge/
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