Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled against Kari Lake’s request to transfer her election case to the Arizona Supreme Court.
QUICK FACTS:
- Judge Peter Thompson denied Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s motion to have her lawsuit heard by the Arizona Supreme Court Wednesday.
- Thompson ruled against Lake’s challenge after claiming the court was not presented with clear and convincing evidence of the misconduct she argued influenced the midterm results.
- According to a local news outlet, Arizona reported that Lake filed an appeal of Judge Thompson’s ruling, requesting the appeal be sent to the Supreme Court and bypass the Appeals Court.
- The Supreme Court claimed, “No good cause appears to transfer the matter to this court.”
- “Election contests are supposed to be done and completed within 10 days of the canvass,” election law attorney Tom Ryan said. “They were given all the opportunity to have a trial. Judge Thompson allowed in a lot of evidence most judges would not allow in, but he wanted to do it so he could show he gave due consideration and weighed the evidence.”
- Lake’s opponent, Democrat Katie Hobbs, was sworn into office two days after the appeals were filed on January 2.
ARIZONA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE KARI LAKE ON JUDGE THOMPSON’S RULING TO DISMISS HER ELECTION LAWSUIT:
“My Election Case provided the world with evidence that proves our elections are run outside of the law. 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,” Lake said.
BACKGROUND:
- Lake filed the appeal to bring her case to the state’s Supreme Court after eight of her ten counts in an election fraud lawsuit were dismissed by a Maricopa County court.
- The two remaining counts pertain to ballot printing issues and procedural errors that occurred on Election Day and were unsuccessfully tried over a two-day period, according to Just the News.
- Although Lake alleges that voter fraud led to her defeat in the election, she maintained that issues with the state’s election system also contributed to the narrow loss.
- Thompson initially denied the request from the declared winner of the race, Hobbs, to sanction Lake for the lawsuit but did order Lake to pay Hobbs for certain trial costs, including interest.
