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Mark Finchem, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state in November, was sanctioned for what a judge deemed “bad faith” efforts to overturn his election loss.
Judge Melissa Iyer Julian of Maricopa County argued that evidence supplied in Finchem’s own filings was sufficient for her to conclude that his statements were not made in “good faith.”
“Attached to Finchem’s Amended Statement was his own expert’s analysis of the alleged failure to count so-called ‘black box votes,’” wrote Judge Julian. “Finchem’s expert report identified 80,000 potentially ‘missing votes.’ Yet, Finchem lost the election he challenged by 120,208 votes. That margin was so significant that even if it were assumed that 80,000 votes were missing and that those votes would all have been cast in his favor, the result of the election would not have changed.”
MSN stated that the judge awarded “fair attorneys’ fees” to Arizona Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who fought against Finchem’s attempts.
Mark Finchem ordered to pay sanctions in ‘groundless’ election challenge following November loss https://t.co/klZ4UPR6OQ
— azcentral (@azcentral) March 6, 2023
On a separate matter, the Arizona Supreme Court decided to expedite a hearing addressing a complaint filed by 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who claims election irregularities cost her the election.
Last month, Lake filed a “Motion To Expedite” the case, arguing that “expeditious action to resolve these issues is needed to safeguard Arizona voters’ right to free and equal elections.”
She argued that the Maricopa County Superior Court and Arizona Court of appeals disregarded the evidence, “ignored this Court’s precedents for reviewing election contests and ratified Maricopa officials’ decision to ignore Arizona’s ballot chain-of-custody (“COC”) and logic and accuracy testing (“L&A testing”) requirements set forth in Arizona’s Election Procedures Manual (“EPM”), and A.R.S. §§16-621(E), 16-449, 16-452(C).”
“The court of appeals’ Opinion denying petitioner Kari Lake’s appeal ruled that Arizona election laws don’t matter,” the filing stated.
The highest court of the state released its decision on Thursday, setting March 21 as the date for determining whether to accept Lake’s fresh appeal. The court asked defendants to submit their replies by March 13.
In November’s midterm elections in Arizona, the appeals court determined that voters were able to cast ballots and votes were counted accurately.
“Lake argues that the superior court erred by dismissing her claims asserting equal protection and due process violations. Her arguments fail, however, because these claims were expressly premised on an allegation of official misconduct in the form of interference with on-site tabulators — the same alleged misconduct as in Lake’s printer/tabulator claim,” the ruling stated, upholding Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ victory.
“Because these claims were duplicative of a claim that Lake unsuccessfully pursued at trial, the superior court did not err by dismissing them. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the superior court’s ruling confirming Hobbs’s election as governor. We deny Hobbs’s request for an award of attorney’s fees on appeal because she offered no substantive basis for the award,” the appeals court noted further.
More on this story via Conservative Brief:
“Evidence ultimately supports the conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies the election results,” it said.CONTINUE READING…
