Arizona Supreme Court Rejects Kari Lake’s Final Election Appeal

Key Takeaways:

– The Arizona Supreme Court closed Kari Lake’s final appeal against the results of the 2022 gubernatorial race.
– Lake, a former TV news anchor, had accused the election process of being flawed.
– Tom Liddy, an attorney for Maricopa County, rebutted Lake’s allegations strongly.
– Lake and her attorneys have faced serious consequences for spreading false election fraud claims.

The Gavel Falls on Lake’s Appeal

In a move signifying the end of an ongoing legal dispute, the Arizona Supreme Court recently dismissed the final appeal of Kari Lake. The contention centered around the results of the 2022 gubernatorial race. Lake’s legal battle, peppered with losses and repeated appeals, spanned two years.

Lake’s Journey to Court

Lake partook in the November 5 election as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, despite not conceding her defeat in the 2022 Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Interestingly, she gained notoriety for promoting the infamous theory called the Big Lie that argued the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, lending her endorsements from him twice, in 2022 and 2024.

Following her loss by over 17,000 votes in the race for Arizona governor, she alleged that her rightful position, like Trump’s presidency, was unjustly taken away.

Lake’s Legal Arguments

One of Lake’s attorneys, Jennifer Wright, painted the 2022 election as irreparably flawed during the final appeal. Wright’s contentions focused on allegations previously dismissed in Lake’s earlier trials, ignoring any potential errors from the lower court judges in understanding and implementing the law, which is typically the scope of appellate courts.

Lake’s Stand and Rebuttals

Wright claimed that Maricopa County did not adhere to the law’s requirment to conduct logic and accuracy test on its ballot tabulators. Additionally, the attorney alleged that ballot envelopes were approved too hastily to ensure true signature verification. However, to support their argument, they had to prove that the county did not conduct any form of signature verification.

In response to Lake’s appeal, Tom Liddy, Maricopa County’s attorney, highlighted the inconsistency in Lake’s allegations. Liddy stated that during Lake’s second trial, two of Lake’s own witnesses testified on having personally verified signatures for the county. He attributed her claim’s failure to the incompetency of her attorneys and not to any misinterpretations of the law by the lower court.

Liddy Debunks Lake’s Claims

Liddy further rebutted Lake’s assertion that the county failed to test its tabulators. His arguments were backed by court records that contained certificates signed by the secretary of state and observers of both political parties who testified witnessing the testing completion.

He also addressed Lake’s complaint of error codes from the subsequent testing of tabulators with memory cards installed. Liddy explained that the error codes were intentional as part of the county’s approach to ensure the tabulators read ballots correctly.

Consequences of Lake’s Allegations

Lake, along with her representing attorneys, Bryan Blehm and Kurt Olsen faced repercussions for their false claims of election fraud. Both attorneys were sanctioned by the Arizona Supreme Court in May 2023. Blehm’s license was suspended for 60 days, and Olsen was formally admonished. As a result of spreading these election fraud allegations against Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, Lake herself is now subject to a defamation lawsuit.

As her long-standing legal battle has now concluded, a jury trial will soon determine the amount she and her campaign owe to Richer for damages related to security costs, harm to his reputation, as well as punitive damages. Currently, neither Olsen nor Wright have commented on the matter.