MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ – On Monday, the final legal claim made by Republican Kari Lake in her efforts to challenge the results of the 2022 gubernatorial election in the state of Arizona was dismissed by a judge, affirming her loss in the hotly-contested race to her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs.
In his ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson stated that Lake failed to meet the burden of proof regarding her claim that Maricopa County – the state’s most populous voting region – had failed to adhere to a law that requires signatures on mail ballots to be properly verified.
Lake, a former television reporter turned politician, has been one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters and has repeatedly echoed his claims that he was cost the 2020 election by as-yet unproven accusations of voter fraud. Since her unsuccessful bid for governor last year, she has publicly mulled running for the U.S. Senate and has even been rumored to be Trump’s potential pick for Vice President in his 2024 reelection campaign.
Lake has repeatedly refused to concede her loss to Hobbs; she has not currently yet made a comment on Monday’s ruling.
After having been beaten by Hobbs by approximately 17,000 votes, Lake filed a lawsuit demanding that she be installed as governor or, failing that, that a new election should take place. Judge Thompson dismissed that case, with the Arizona Supreme Court declining to hear nearly all of Lake’s appeal, saying there was no evidence to support her claim that over 35,000 ballots were added to vote totals.
However, the Arizona Supreme Court subsequently allowed Lake to proceed with one remaining claim challenging the signature verification process for early ballots in Maricopa County, with the case going back to the lower court.
Maricopa officials have stated that there were no issues with their signature verification efforts; Lake’s legal team maintained that there was evidence of inconsistencies in the signatures, but Thompson ruled Monday that “The evidence the Court received does not support Plaintiff’s remaining claim.”
Earlier in May, Lake’s lawyers were sanctioned $2,000 for what the court said were “false statements” claiming that over 35,000 ballots had been illicitly added to the election results.
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