Judge Peter Thompson of the Arizona Superior Court determined Monday evening that two issues central to Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s election lawsuit will proceed to trial.
The lawsuit filed against Maricopa County election authorities and Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs disputed the legitimacy of Hobbs’ narrow victory against Lake on November 8th.
Hobbs and Maricopa County had filed a motion to dismiss the election dispute in its entirety.
Thompson dismissed eight of Lake’s ten counts, including whether the state followed the law regarding signature verification of mail-in ballots and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s involvement in founding and helping raise funds for a political action committee dedicated to defeating MAGA Republican candidates like Lake.
The judge also rejected accusations that the county’s handling of the election on Election Day violated the equal protection and due process rights of Republicans.
Numerous media sites emphasized Thompson’s decision to dismiss the bulk of the counts in Lake’s lawsuit while downplaying the fact that the suit’s core remained intact.
Fox affiliate in Phoenix, KSAZ-TV, tweeted, “A Maricopa County judge has dismissed most of Kari Lake’s election lawsuit.” Lake’s campaign rightly identified the tweet as “spin.”
This is spin by @FOX10Phoenix.
We will be allowed to argue before the court that the machines were compromised & that the chain of custody was broken casting the entire election in doubt.
We are excited to make our case. https://t.co/SN6rNskNo5
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) December 20, 2022
Count 2, containing Election Day ballot printer difficulties, and Count 4, concerning chain-of-custody paperwork affecting over 300,000 ballots, are at the heart of Lake’s legal action.
Count 2 asserts that the ballot-on-demand printers and tabulators were not properly certified before to Election Day, when 59 percent of polling stations (132 sites), according to Lake’s legal team, had malfunctioning machinery. In several of these places, hours-long queues formed.
The county said that 70 sites were affected, or around one-third.
Lake contended that because Republicans outvoted Democrats three to one on Election Day, widespread voter suppression of her supporters occurred.
MOVING FORWARD: @KariLake v @katiehobbs will proceed on counts 2 and 4 (printer settings and chain of custody).
All other counts have been dismissed by Judge Thompson. pic.twitter.com/eEmV8wPvBj
— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) December 20, 2022
Thompson determined that ballot-on-demand printers were not need to be certified since they are not involved in the vote-counting process.
In his ruling, he stated that Lake’s team must demonstrate at trial that someone tampered with the printers’ settings in violation of Arizona law, resulting in “identifiable lost votes” that affected the outcome of the election.
Given the 17,000-vote gap between Lake and Hobbs, it would require around 130 Lake supporters to be stopped or deterred from voting at each of the 132 malfunctioning polling locations for the difference to be made. If the actual number of problematic voting places was 70, that would equate to 240 Lake voters each location.
More on this story via The Western Journal:
Poll worker Mike Peterson told the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors this month that over 500 voters at his polling location in the Paradise Valley area of Phoenix were in effect disenfranchised, and that’s just one site at the end of Election Day. CONTINUE READING…