Election officials supported the lawyers for large sums of money but denied a plea. The challenge of Lake’s loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, filed by Lake, was opposed by election officials who received assistance from witnesses. Lake, the Republican candidate who was defeated in the Arizona gubernatorial election, has been instructed by a judge to reimburse $33,000 in costs. (AP) — PHOENIX
Peter Thompson, the Judge of Maricopa County Superior Court, declined to impose sanctions against Lake’s lawyers, stating that their claims were groundless and presented in bad faith, and that they failed to prove their case or equate it to Lake’s statement.
The former Republican governor, Jan Brewer, who was appointed by Governor Thompson, pointed out through a statistical analysis conducted by a pollster who testified on behalf of Lake, that enough voters would have been disenfranchised if technical problems at polling places on Election Day had not occurred, and the worker claiming to be an election witness who conducts public-opinion polls is not credible.
The judge said that there was no case law to rule out using statistical analysis as a way to prove election results challenges in the lawsuit, because the analysis was never admitted into evidence during the two-day trial last week due to its unsupported assumptions.
Arizona affirms 2022 election results despite complaints from the GOP.
The attorneys for Lake’s argued that the lawsuit was brought in bad faith and was groundless. They requested fees in the amount of $33,000, including other legal costs and attorney fees of about $695,000. Both the outgoing secretary of state, who represented Hobbs, and the governor-elect, who represented Lake’s attorneys in Maricopa County, acted as witnesses.
Lake does not have, and Lake has not. In the November races, she made the lies of Donald Trump, the former President, the centerpiece of her campaign, while conceding to the deniers of the election around the country. Among the most vocal Republicans promoting Trump’s election lies, Lake was the one who lost to Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes.
The judge concluded that those failures didn’t affect the results of the election. Lake’s Thompson dismissed the claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the intentional result of misconduct, challenging the election.
Lawyers for Lake, who had requested the court to either declare her the victor or mandate a new election in Maricopa County, officially notified Thompson on Tuesday afternoon, challenging his rejection of the lawsuit.
In the midst of the chaos, queues accumulated in certain regions. The faulty printers generated ballots that were too faint to be deciphered by the tabulating machines present at the polling stations. Attorneys representing Lake primarily addressed issues pertaining to ballot printers at select polling locations within Maricopa County, which is the residence of over 60 percent of Arizona’s electorate.
County officials say that all ballots were affected by the printers at headquarters department elections, and everyone had a chance to vote. The counters were more sophisticated.
Lake faced extremely long odds in her challenge, not only intended to deny her victory but also to prove that the result of declaring the woman as the winner was wrong, and that misconduct occurred.
In early December, a federal judge ordered Republican candidate Finchem and Lake to pay the legal costs of representing lawyers defending election officials against Finchem’s unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to require hand counting of all ballots in the November election for the state secretary.
In this instance, Lake was not instructed to provide any monetary sanctions. Lawyers advocating for Maricopa County officials are requesting $141,000 in expenses, although the judge has not yet determined the exact amount of the penalty.