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A judge rejected Republican Carrie Lake’s challenge to her victory over Democrat Katie Hobbs in the Arizona gubernatorial race, dismissing her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places were the result of willful misconduct.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, appointed by then-Republican Gov. Jane Brewer, found that the court had found no clear and convincing evidence that Ms. Lake’s alleged widespread misconduct influenced the outcome of the 2022 election.
Ms Lake’s witnesses did not have any personal knowledge of the willful misconduct, the judge said.
While most other election deniers across the country conceded after losing in November, Ms. Lake did not. Instead, she asked the judge to either declare her the winner or order a new vote in Maricopa County.
“The court cannot accept guesswork or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence,” Judge Thompson said.
Ms. Lake’s attorneys are primarily concerned with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County, where more than 60 percent of Arizona’s voters live.
Faulty printers printed ballots too light to be read by live tabulators at polling places. Amid the chaos, long lines formed in some areas.
County officials said everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were counted as ballots affected by the printer were taken to a more complex counter at the elections department headquarters. They are investigating the root cause of the printer issue.
Ms. Lake faces the slim odds in her challenge to prove not only that wrongdoing occurred, but that it was done in an effort to deny her victory that in fact resulted in the wrong woman being declared the winner.
Her legal team said a witness inspected the ballots on behalf of her campaign and found 14 ballots with 19-inch (48-centimeter) images of ballots printed on 20-inch paper, meaning Ballots will not be read by tabulating machines.
Witnesses insisted that someone altered the configuration of the printers, a claim that election officials have disputed.
County officials said the ballot image was slightly smaller because a technician who was looking for a solution to an Election Day problem had chosen to scale down to fit on the printer.
About 1,200 ballots were affected by enabling the feature, and they were copied so tabulating machines could read them, they said. Ultimately, those votes were counted, officials said.
A poll participant testified on Ms. Lake’s behalf, claiming that technical problems at polling places had disenfranchised enough voters that it could have changed the outcome of the election to Ms. Lake’s benefit.
But an expert who was called to testify by election officials said there was no evidence to support the pollster’s claim that 25,000 to 40,000 people who would normally vote had actually not voted because of Election Day problems.
Judge Thompson previously dismissed eight of the 10 charges brought by Ms. Lake in the lawsuit. One of them is Ms. Lake’s accusation that Ms. Hobbs, in her capacity as secretary of state, and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Rich, participated in the censorship, flagging social media posts as election misinformation so Twitter could remove them.
He also dismissed her claims that she discriminates against Republicans and that the mail-in voting process is illegal.
Ms Hobbs will become premier on January 2.
Another judge on Friday rejected Republican Abraham Hamad’s challenge to the outcome of his race against Democrat Chris Meyers for Arizona attorney general.
The court concluded that Hamad, who trailed Meyers by 511 votes and did not concede the contest, failed to prove the miscount he claimed.
Court hearings are scheduled for Thursday to announce recount results for the attorney general, governor and state legislative races.
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