Kari Lake’s election challenge trial so far
There is no question there were major irregularities in the 2022 election in Arizona, and many of them are being revealed in the ongoing trial. But it’s always an enormously uphill battle to prove there was intentional fraud that mattered in terms of the outcome.
I haven’t watched any of the trial myself, and from the accounts I’ve read I’m a bit confused as to what actually must be proved in this case in order to win, and what the court would be willing to apply as a remedy if that burden were met. Maybe it’s because it’s not been made clear?
At any rate, here are some links to articles on the proceedings: this, this, and this.
There certainly have been witnesses alleging to the strange goings-on, which were egregious. Some of them have said that these things could not have occurred unintentionally and must instead have been intentional, but I don’t know whether the judge will buy it. Then of course there’s the aforementioned question of how far the plaintiff (Lake) has to go to prove she would have won the election otherwise.
My gut feeling is that despite the strong evidence of chicanery and even more powerful evidence of egregious negligence in the way this election was run – almost certainly contributing to and perhaps determining Lake’s loss – the court will be reluctant to do anything about it except some sort of mild admonition to Maricopa County to clean up its act.
In general, courts do not want to decide elections and there is an enormous presumption in favor of letting things stand no matter what. As I’ve said before, the only way to deal with these things is to prevent them from happening.
Of course, if Lake wins her case and a new election is called, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
The charismatic Kari is hardly likely to succeed, but what no intelligent person can deny is that she attracted a wide following (in person and on social media), was tireless in her campaigning, was unafraid to debate or to engage the media, not to mention being able to articulate sensible ideas for policies beneficial to her state and to the republic, yet her incompetent, inarticulate and cowardly opponent somehow managed a victory, supposedly, according to the MSM, with no electoral shenanigans whatsoever.
Defund the Deep State. Start with the FBI.
I’ve watched quite a bit of the trial and I agree that nothing is likely to be done that will affect the outcome of the election. I think there is enough plausible deniability on the part of the Maricopa County election officials that the judge will not provide any remedy besides perhaps a lecture to do better next time.
Arranging a technical issue, such as changing printer settings, is really a very clever way to change the outcome of the election. You can always deny that you meant to do it with the knowledge that the courts are very unlikely to do anything about it. I’m also not quite sure how this problem can be fixed if you have corrupt election officials. There are any number of ways they can subtly make procedural changes that they know will affect the outcome of an election without being caught.
Even though I don’t think Lake will win this case, I think having these issues brought out in the open is a positive development. There were definitely problems in this election and the Maricopa County officials were only too happy to cover them up. It is useful to see the ignorance and arrogance of officials like Maricopa County Recorder Steve Richer on full display.
I do note that the judge’s ruling was directly contradictory to what Barnes said in the Viva Frei clip posted here last week. Does this mean that Barnes was wrong? Or is the judge wrong? If the latter, can it be appealed? (And what of the 8 items he refused to consider?)
Those clever b**tards:
“Kari Lake Expert Witness: Missized Ballots That Caused Election Day Chaos Could Not Have Been An Accident”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/kari-lake-expert-witness-missized-ballots-caused-election-day-chaos-could-not-have-been
Opening grafs:
‘On the first day of trial in Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s election challenge Wednesday, her lawyers focused on the Maricopa County election equipment failures that caused chaos on Election Day and disenfranchised voters. Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson previously dismissed eight out of the ten claims Lake made in her lawsuit. In his order allowing Lake’s case to go forward, Thompson said that she would have to prove that misconduct occurred, and that it resulted in “identifiable lost votes” affecting the outcome of the election.
‘Lake’s lawyers attempted to make that case with their bombshell revelation that a review of random ballots found that 48 out of 113 (42.5 percent) were “19-inch ballots produced on 20-inch paper,” causing them to be rejected.…’
[Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
File under: “42.5%??? ONLY 42 AND ONE-HALF PER CENT??? That doesn’t prove a freakin’ thing YOU %$#@^$s… SO WHAT that it’s only in Maricopa???…”
I don’t believe there is a single thinking adult, on either side, that fully trusts our elections any more. The D’s are laughing they are getting away with it and the R’s are despairing of fixing it with near zero support from the national Republicans.
There are only two ways this illegality is going to stop:
— A judge ordering a new election, and/or,
— Putting election officials in jail, even for a token amount of time, for violating state election laws (which clearly occurred in this case).
Judges, essentially, have zero accountability which is why I don’t understand why so many of them are so timid about enforcing the law. I’ve served as an expert witness a couple of dozen times and listening to judges (“Mr. Jones clearly violated state statues pertaining to discovery, but I’m going to let it pass this time…”) is quite dismaying. I’m hoping Ms. Lake may have stumbled on the rare judge who actually wants to do his job.
Never put Leftists malfunctions to happenstance, it was a plan I’m sure.
From way in the east hope Kari wins, but either way she has broke open this vote fraud.
Saw she tried to bring a fraud case 9 months ago but like all them judges tossed it out. No one wants to have a major fraud vote out in the open, at least the powers in charge.
Gregory Harpe:
And the details of how elections are conducted in Maricopa County are incredibly Byzantine, absolutely stupendously stupid and a fertile ground for error at the least and fraud at the most.
I do not understand at all why the AZ state legislature has not launched a full investigation of election irregularities.
I do not understand why the national Republican party is not on this case doing everything possible to assist – money, lawyers, investigators – Lake’s case.
Maricopa county had plenty of election irregularities in the 2020 election and now once again.
It’s one hell of a coincidence or it’s not.
They wanted to enable the steal it has been real clear their reaction to 1000 mules as well as everything that happened before
I read this post which the atty for the state implied that it was the fault of those voters who decided to vote on election day.
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2022/12/22/maricopa-county-attorney-argues-that-voters-who-wait-until-election-day-to-vote-then-problems-reap-what-they-sow-n677545
Really?? So we can’t trust them with the mail in ballots and now we can’t trust them with the election day ballots.
I’ve mentioned it before about the Oklahoma process – closed primaries so Rs can vote for their preferred candidate. State-wide use of the same machines and process. Paper ballots which I scan and recounts are easy. The machines are not connected to the web, but have a separate and secure method of transmitting data. The mail-in ballots have to be requested, filled out and then signed off in front of a notary (free of charge) and be at the board of elections by the election date – none of the late acceptance. Limited early voting options which allow the election board to update the poll records for election day.
The mail in and early voting results are posted around 7 pm on the election day. So, all you are looking for are the in-person voting results. In November, those results were all posted by 11pm. The audit of results (random selection of races in each precinct) was completed within one week, if I remember correctly. If there was an issue, they identified it and recommended the correction (usually more training). But the differences were only 1-2 votes.
The state want to have good, honest elections so the process has been established. I wish all states could be as logical.
We have voting by precincts – something like 2,000+ precincts for the state and the voting spots are usually churches which have lots of free parking, easy in and out access, and there are a lot of churches in OK. Since they know how many voters are in a precinct, the ballots can be preprinted (with extras for spoilage). I am amazed that a large county in AZ would have ballots on demand and you can pick your polling place. I know that there will be only so many voters at my precincts so the lines will not be a problem.
This year, there was a F3 tornado which wiped out the church polling place. No big deal. They moved the voting place to another precinct at another church two miles away. And the voting went on….
“Those clever b**tards” (continued):
“Printer settings changed on Election Day, linked to tabulators rejecting ballots: Maricopa official;
“In Kari Lake election challenge trial, county director of elections testified ballot-on-demand printer settings were altered by a tech acting independently of county election department. Trial judge is expected to rule in the case before January.”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/lake-election-trial-ends-maricopa-official-admitting-printer-settings
So what will it be?
“Nothing to see here, move along”?
“Nothing unusual here? Happens all the time. What’s the big deal”?
“We did it to protect the American people”?
“But Trump and his vile spawn are trying to destroy America…and WE HAVE GOT TO STOP THEM BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE”?…
Etc….
This appears to be a good summary of Day 1 of the trial, at Powerline, and gets into some of the technical details, especially the 19-in ballot on 20-in paper problem.
Being a tech guy, and an election judge here in Louisville in 2022, this helped me understand how the mess happened. Reliance on human beings doing things as expected, such as adjusting printer settings between elections, is just asking for trouble. Hindsight is 20/20 but using different paper sizes is just one of those things that jumps out at anybody technical as potential for trouble.
To me the fundamental problem, and I think the fundamental problem in most instances of election malfunction, is an obsession with making voting *easy*. In some cases this may just be misdirected good motive but I’ve been observing politics long enough to believe that Democrats specifically desire easy voting and high turnout because they think it helps them win elections, and not just by fraud. The Powerline article notes there were around *12,000* different ballot layouts needed to cover all the variations of local races in Maricopa county, and the print-on-demand function is only needed because Maricopa choses to allow voters to vote anywhere in the county rather than at specific precinct locations on Election Day. (We do something similar here in Louisville but only for a few days of early voting at limited locations.) While pre-printed ballots will have their own problems, using pre-printed forms available at specific locations would have eliminated a significant number of the problems experienced. Yes, it inconveniences voters to have to go to a specific location to vote but so does having to vote on a specific day, or an of a thousand other procedural details, that help to insure integrity and honesty in an election and not just a huge pile of votes which nobody really knows how to count or where they came from.