Arizona Court of Appeals Upholds Election Results, Rejecting Kari Lake’s Challenge to Governor’s Race

The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled against Republican Kari Lake in her challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake had requested to throw out election results in the state’s most populous county and hold the election again, claiming that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the result of intentional misconduct.

However, the court found that Lake had presented no evidence that voters whose ballots were unreadable by tabulators at polling places were not able to vote. A pollster who testified on behalf of Lake even confirmed that ballots that couldn’t initially be read at polling places could still ultimately have their vote counted.

The court’s ruling comes after a contentious election season in Arizona, with both sides accusing the other of voter suppression and other election-related misconduct. The ruling is seen as a victory for the Hobbs campaign, which has maintained that the election was conducted fairly and that all votes were counted accurately.

The ruling is the latest in a series of court decisions that have rejected challenges to the election results in Arizona. The state’s Supreme Court is expected to hear a separate challenge to the election results later this month. In the meantime, Hobbs is expected to be sworn in as Arizona’s governor in January.