The Grind:
The high court ordered Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson to review that element of Lake’s case again to determine if Lake can prove “votes (were) affected ‘in sufficient numbers to alter the outcome of the election.’”
The Arizona Supreme Court declined to hear the majority of Republican Kari Lake’s appeal on Wednesday during a challenge to her loss in the governor’s race but kept the case alive by sending one of Lake’s claims back to a lower court for review.
The Details:
Lake made seven legal claims in her case, six of which the state’s high court said were properly dismissed by lower courts. However, according to an opinion released Wednesday written by Chief Justice Robert Brutinel the trial court erroneously dismissed Lake’s claim challenging the application of signature verification procedures on early ballots in Maricopa County and as a result sent the claim back to the lower court to reconsider.
Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes, but has contested the results.
In her challenge, the former TV anchor claimed there were problems with ballot printers at some polling locations in Maricopa County, which is where over 60 percent of Arizona’s voters live.
The ballots were printed too light to be read by the on-site tabulators at polling locations and as a result lines backed up in some areas. Lake also alleged that thousands of ballots were “injected” into the election and that problems with tabulation machines disenfranchised “thousands” of voters.
County officials countered, claiming those at the locations had the opportunity to vote and that all ballots were counted because the ones affected by the printer malfunctions were taken to more sophisticated counters at election headquarters. Read more…