Last week, a judge ruled that Kari Lake failed to prove she lost the Arizona governor’s race because of election misconduct.
The judge wrote in his opinion that “every single witness” refuted her misconduct allegations, and her assertion that faulty ballot printers cost her “thousands” of votes was no more than “speculation or conjecture.”
But Lake, unfazed, is appealing (read the Notice of Appeal here). Her reason? “I am standing up for the people of this state, the people who were done wrong on Election Day and the millions of people who live outside of Maricopa County whose vote was watered down by this bogus election in Maricopa County.”
To begin with, there aren’t “millions” of Arizona voters living outside of Maricopa County. In this election for governor, there were exactly 1,015,950 votes in the other counties, and of those, 518,060 voted for Lake (see results here). That’s how many votes “outside Maricopa County” were supposedly “watered down.” She doesn’t even know how many voters live in her state.
This points to a fundamental problem with Lake, and many other Republicans: They either don’t know the facts, or don’t think facts matter. But when you go to court, facts do matter. There, you have to prove them.
But the bigger picture is that complaining you were “done wrong” gets you nowhere in the courts. As the trial judge pointed out, the election challenge statute is very specific about what she has to prove. He identified four specific elements for each of the two claims that went to trial, and found she didn’t prove any of the eight elements.
Every legal decision rests on (1) findings of fact, and (2) rulings of law. Appellate courts almost never tamper with findings of fact; you have to show no reasonable trier of fact could have made them. Nearly all appeals focus on the judge’s rulings of law.
We haven’t seen her lawyers’ arguments yet, but Lake’s best bet probably is to argue the trial judge should have allowed a trial on the portions of her complaint he dismissed. If an appeals court agrees, the case will be sent back to the judge for a trial on those issues. They’ll likely also challenge his rulings on issues that went to trial, but legal experts quoted by Newsweek (here) say her chances aren’t good.
Lake doesn’t have a case, but she’s clueless about how the legal system works. Appellate courts don’t provide shoulders to cry on. What she really needs is a therapist.
Update (2/15/23): As predicted, the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected Lake’s appeal, stating she provided no proof of misconduct or illegal votes (read story here, see ruling here). On to the state supreme court!