Arizona Supreme Court Dismisses Kari Lake’s Last-Ditch Bid to Reverse 2022 Governor Election

Kari Lake has officially exhausted her legal options regarding her 2022 gubernatorial defeat in Arizona. The Arizona Supreme Court dismissed her final attempt to contest the election results, affirming that Katie Hobbs remains the governor. This ruling leaves earlier decisions by trial judges and the Court of Appeals intact, all of which rejected Lake’s claims related to the malfunction of voting tabulators.

Additionally, Lake had sought a new election in Maricopa County, a request that was also denied in this latest order. In the 2022 election, she lost to Hobbs by a margin of 17,117 votes.

While Lake’s gubernatorial aspirations have come to an end, her focus has shifted towards a U.S. Senate campaign. As of Thursday evening, she trailed Democrat Ruben Gallego by approximately 44,000 votes, with over 1.5 million ballots counted. Despite the deficit, Lake has not conceded, and nearly 780,000 ballots remain to be counted.

In a related development, the Arizona Supreme Court also dismissed Abe Hamadeh’s appeal to overturn the results of the 2022 attorney general race. Hamadeh, who lost by a mere 280 votes to Democrat Kris Mayes, argued that he was denied sufficient opportunity to present new evidence during his trial. However, the appellate court identified multiple deficiencies in his case, including late filing and insufficient proof that the alleged uncounted ballots would have changed the outcome.

Despite the setback, Hamadeh has another avenue to challenge the election results, claiming that illegal votes were counted in Maricopa County. His attorney aims to have the ballots from that county disregarded, an action they contend could potentially favor Hamadeh.

Meanwhile, Hamadeh has secured a position in the U.S. House of Representatives for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. Questions remain about whether he would step down from Congress should he win his appeal for a new trial as attorney general. Given that he is set to be sworn into Congress in January, the relevance of pursuing the attorney general position appears increasingly tenuous.

The Supreme Court also upheld a decision affecting Republican Mark Finchem, who lost the secretary of state race to Democrat Adrian Fontes by over 120,000 votes. Finchem previously attempted to overturn the election results but later abandoned that effort. The court upheld a lower court’s ruling labeling his lawsuit as “groundless” and required Finchem to pay over $47,000 in legal fees. Additionally, he must cover an extra $38,500 for costs incurred by Fontes during the appeal process.

In a recent turn of events, Finchem has successfully secured a seat as a state senator representing Prescott.