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Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by about 17,000 votes in the
Nov. 8 election. A central tenet of her gubernatorial campaign
was endorsing former President Donald Trump’s false claims that
the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Following her loss, Lake refused to concede and sued to have the
result vacated under Arizona’s election laws. She is seeking to
either have a new election held or be declared the winner.
Maricopa County Judge Peter Thompson threw out the bulk of
Lake's claims, but allowed two to go forward in a two-day bench
trial.
Lake has argued that printer problems in Maricopa County on
election day resulted in thousands of voters' being unable to
cast votes, something the county has said isn’t true.
Lake must clear a high evidentiary bar to succeed at trial -
essentially having to prove that county election officials and a
private contractor intentionally took actions to sway the
election and that their conduct was the reason Lake lost to
Hobbs.
The county denies any wrongdoing. Hobbs will not testify at the
trial.
Thompson will ultimately rule in time to give the losing side a
chance to appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court. Hobbs is
scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 2.
At a conservative gathering earlier this week, Lake expressed
confidence that her lawsuit would succeed. Marc Elias, an
election attorney whose firm is representing Hobbs, said on
Twitter that Lake had little chance of prevailing under the law.
“Proving intentional wrongdoing and that it affected the outcome
of the election will be impossible for Lake,” Elias wrote.
(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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