On Tuesday, an Arizona judge rejected the petition of Democratic governor-elect Katie Hobbs to sanction Republican former candidate Kari Lake for her allegations that the state’s gubernatorial election was illegitimate due to voter disenfranchisement.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed Hobbs’s request to sanction Lake on the basis that Lake’s claims were “groundless and not made in good faith.”
However, the judge ordered the reimbursement of over $33,000 to Hobbs, at 7.5 percent annual interest, for expenses related to expert-witness testimony during the two-day trial that Lake convened to contest the outcome of the race. Hobbs originally sought $695,000 to cover legal fees and other costs. On Tuesday, Lake appealed the order to compensate her opponent’s expert witnesses.
Thompson extended Lake some grace in denying the sanctions, ruling that while she “failed to meet the burden of clear and convincing evidence,” that did not mean that her claims “were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith.”
“There is no doubt that each side believes firmly in its position with great conviction,” he declared.
The decision comes a week after Thompson threw out eight out of ten claims of election fraud made by Lake, admitting only two specific allegations to be heard in trial. Lake had the burden of proving malfeasance by election officials aiming to rig the race for Hobbs. In her 70-page legal filing, Lake also targeted the long lines at certain polling locations as evidence that the right to vote was being restricted.
On Election Day, 31 percent of polling places in Maricopa county experienced printing problems that prevented the processing of ballots by some precinct-based tabulators. While the malfunction was being fixed, Maricopa County defaulted to its alternative manual-voting method at affected polling centers, by which residents could deposit completed ballots into a special, secure ballot box to be centrally tabulated.
The plaintiffs, who asked that the court declare Lake the winner or order a recount, had to demonstrate that Maricopa County’s tabulator issues were a part of an opposition scheme and that such alleged manipulation did in fact cost Lake the election, which she lost by 17,000 votes.
Lake filed a notice of appeal on Tuesday to the Arizona Court of Appeals to contest the dismissal of the two counts that were adjudicated in the two-day trial and her other counts that never made it to court.
On the campaign trail, retired TV anchor Lake rode to prominence by embracing former president Trump’s false narrative that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. She earned his endorsement and made combatting election fraud the heart of her campaign.
“I am standing up for the people of this state. The people who were done wrong on Election Day and the millions of people who live outside of Maricopa County, whose vote was watered down by this bogus election in Maricopa County,” Lake said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Tuesday, Fox News first noted.
“My election case provided the world with evidence that proves our elections are run outside of the law,” Lake said. “This judge did not rule in our favor. However, for the sake of restoring faith and honesty in our elections, I will appeal his ruling.”