'Buckle Up': Kari Lake Lays Out New Path Forward After Appeals Court Denies Her Election Challenge
After an Arizona appeals court on Thursday dismissed her challenges to the November gubernatorial election, Repubican Kari Lake announced she will take her allegations of misconduct to the Arizona Supreme Court.
Lake has challenged Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ narrow win in November.
Lake has maintained there were several election irregularities centered in Maricopa County, including printer problems that led to many ballots being rejected, as well as long lines at polling places that caused voters to turn away rather than cast ballots.
As a result, she is suing to have a new election held, but she lost the first round in court. She appealed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, which issued its ruling against Lake on Thursday.
Hours after the ruling, Lake said she was not giving up.
“I told you we would take this case all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, and that’s exactly what we are going to do. Buckle up, America!” Lake posted on Twitter.
BREAKING: I told you we would take this case all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, and that’s exactly what we are going to do. Buckle up, America! 🇺🇸https://t.co/DXTi4WoEQ3 pic.twitter.com/ik5sSqMz5P
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) February 16, 2023
Lake said she believes in her cause and will not abandon it.
“I assure you we share your frustration. We put two years of hard work and passion into a WINNING political campaign that was stolen from us on Election Day in Maricopa County. They can call us crazy. But they will never call us quitters,” she posted on her Kari Lake War Room Twitter account.
“When you have the truth on your side, you do not abandon ship every time you hit a road block. You keep moving forward. You stand up for what’s right. Does the Truth still Matter? We’ll see,” she wrote.
BREAKING: @KariLake is taking her Election Case to the Arizona Supreme Court.
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) February 16, 2023
I assure you we share your frustration.
We put two years of hard work and passion into a WINNING political campaign that was stolen from us on Election Day in Maricopa County.
They can call us crazy.
But they will never call us quitters
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) February 16, 2023
The ruling from the Arizona Court of Appeals said Lake did not buttress her allegations with sufficient proof.
“Lake’s arguments highlight election-day difficulties, but her request for relief fails because the evidence presented to the superior court ultimately supports the court’s conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results,” the ruling said.
The ruling stated Lake never proved that issues with misprinted ballots impacted the final tally.
“Lake’s claim thus boils down to a suggestion that election-day issues led to long lines at vote centers, which frustrated and discouraged voters, which allegedly resulted in a substantial number of predominately Lake voters not voting. But Lake’s only purported evidence that these issues had any potential effect on election results was, quite simply, sheer speculation,” the ruling said.
The court also rejected Lake’s claims that the process of signature verification of mail-in ballots was flawed “because Lake waited until after the election to challenge a signature-verification process of which she was on notice months.”
The court did put one cloud on Hobbs’ horizon. Her “request for an award of attorney’s fees on appeal” was rejected “because she offered no substantive basis for the award.”
However, representatives of Hobbs and Maricopa County were chortling after the ruling, according to the Arizona Republic,
“When a candidate for office asks a court to throw out valid votes, you have to wonder how committed to election integrity they really are,” Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Clint Hickman said in a statement. He said Lake has been rejected “at the polls, when Arizona voters rejected her bid to be governor, and in a court of law, where her many claims have been dismissed again and again.”
“It must feel like Groundhog Day for Kari Lake as she racks up loss after loss,” Nicole DeMont, campaign manager for Hobbs, said in a statement. “First, the voters rejected her, and now the courts have twice rejected her baseless claims.”
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