Judge Rules in GOP’s Favor in Arizona Election Challenge

The GOP and its candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, have scored a legal victory in their quest to challenge the results from the 2022 midterm elections.

This comes after a judge ruled in favor of Lake’s motion for ballot inspection.

Lake Makes Progress Challenging Vote Results

According to the official results from the Arizona gubernatorial election last month, Republican candidate Kari Lake, a long-time Fox News anchor and ally of former President Trump, lost by 17,000 votes, or 0.6 percentage points.

The election was won by Democrat Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Secretary of State, who literally certified her own election victory by holding the job she has.

The final tally says that 1,287,890 Arizonians, or 50.3% of the votes cast, voted for Katie Hobbs vs. 1,270,774, or 49.7%, who voted for Republican Kari Lake.

On Election Day, November 8, there were multiple reports of irregularities in Maricopa County, which has more than 60% of Arizona’s population of 4.5 million people. It is the fourth most populous county in the United States.

Kari Lake was categorical early on that she would mount a legal challenge to dispute the official results from Arizona’s gubernatorial election.

Now, Judge Peter Thompson of the Maricopa County Superior Court issued a ruling, approving three of her four demands on challenging the election results, The Washington Examiner reported.

Random Ballots Deserve to Be Reviewed

Trump ally Kari Lake had insisted on inspecting random ballots cast in Maricopa County.

The first of the three ballot inspection modes approved by Judge Thompson would allow Lake’s team to look at 50 random “on-demand” printed ballots cast on Election Day.

The second one is reviewing 50 random ballots cast early, which come from “six separate Maricopa County batches.”

The third mode of inspection provides for reviewing 50 random on-demand printed ballots which, however, were designated as spoiled.

Because of state law, the judge denied Kari Lake’s request that 50 random early ballots come from ballot envelopes also be reviewed. As per the ruling, Lake’s team will be able to start inspecting the ballots at 8 am MST on Tuesday, December 20.

In an apparent date error, Thompson also ordered the Republican team to submit a ballot inspector until Friday, “December 15, 2022.”

The judge instructed Lake’s team to carry out the review of the random ballots in a way that would not interfere at all with the ongoing recount of the results from the 2022 election.

Kari Lake’s campaign reacted on Twitter by stating the random ballots deserved to be reviewed and the GOP team was “delighted” to have been granted the opportunity.

Trump’s ally filed her election challenge lawsuit last week. She insisted that the results of the vote would be illegitimate if the election process had been so.

Lake has refused to concede the Arizona gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs.

This article appeared in Mainstpress and has been published here with permission.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR