PHOENIX — Republican Kari Lake has lost a lawsuit in an Arizona appeals court, arguing that thousands of ballots from the Phoenix area were not properly verified when she lost the 2022 gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
The state Court of Appeals affirmed Tuesday a verdict Last year that Lake failed to prove signature inconsistencies were ignored by election verification staffers in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of the state’s voters.
Lake’s attorney, Bryan James Blehm, did not respond Wednesday to phone and email messages about the appeals court decision and whether Lake would appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.
Blehm also did not respond to requests for comment about the sanctions imposed on him last Friday by the State Bar of Arizona for “unequivocally false” statements to the state Supreme Court while hearing the Lake election challenges. His 60-day suspension takes effect on July 7.
Lake is now a former television news anchor to run for the United States Senate. She is considered the Republican Party’s front-runner ahead of the party’s July 30 primary, where they will face Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego in November for the seat currently held by independent Kyrsten Sinema, who is not looking a second term.
Lake is one of the most outspoken Republican candidates promoting former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Lake subsequently lost several lawsuits refuse to acknowledge she lost the 2022 gubernatorial election to Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.
Court of Appeal Judge Sean Brearcliffe noted in Tuesday’s ruling that Lake claimed more than 8,000 ballots were “maliciously misconfigured to cause a tabulation rejection” and not counted.
Even if all 8,000 supposedly uncounted votes had been for Lake, Brearcliffe wrote, the 17,000-vote difference between Lake and Hobbs would not have been overcome.
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This story has been updated to correct that Lake is running for U.S. Senate, not that she ran unsuccessfully last year.
