An Arizona judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Kari Lake over her loss in last year’s gubernatorial race, ruling she failed to prove the most populous county of the state, Maricopa, had neglected to review voter signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes. .
The ruling, released late Monday, is the latest legal setback for Ms. Lake, a Republican who was backed by former President Donald J. Trump in one of the nation’s most important gubernatorial races in 2022.
During a three-day trial in Maricopa County State Superior Court last week, lawyers for Ms Lake argued that election officials worked too quickly to properly review the 300,000 signatures that accompanied postal ballots.
But in a six-page ruling, Judge Peter A. Thompson wrote that the process complied with state law, which requires signatures to be checked against those in public voter records, but does not include specific guidelines on how much time a worker must spend. on each ballot.
‘Plaintiff’s evidence and arguments do not clear the bar,’ he wrote, adding, ‘Not one second, not three seconds and not six seconds: no standard appears in the plain text of the statute .”
Ms Lake and her lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, and it was unclear whether she would appeal the decision.
The case was the latest in a series of court losses over the election of Ms Lake, who claimed, without evidence, that mail-in voting undermines the integrity of elections. Other claims in his lawsuit had already been rejected by the court.
Ms Lake has suggested she might run for office again. This year, she said she plans to run for the US Senate seat currently held by Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in December to become an independent.
Clint L. Hickman, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which helps oversee elections in the county, welcomed the judge’s decision in a statement Monday.
“Wild claims of rigged elections may attract media attention and fundraising appeals, but they don’t win court cases,” he wrote. “When ‘bombs’ and ‘smoking guns’ aren’t supported by facts, they fail in court.”