100 days after the election, Kari Lake loses again. What a surprise

The decision is in. Kari Lake misplaced. Once more.

Is there anyone left on the planet that’s shocked by this?

The Arizona Courtroom of Appeals on Thursday rejected each certainly one of her claims of the various methods during which she was robbed in final yr’s election.

“The proof introduced to the superior court docket finally helps the court docket’s conclusion that voters have been in a position to solid their ballots, that votes have been counted accurately, and that no different foundation justifies setting apart the election outcomes,” Decide Kent Cattani wrote, in affirming that Gov. Katie Hobbs is, in actual fact, GOV. Katie Hobbs.

Kari Lake vows an enchantment (so please donate)

I’d wish to say that the ruling of the three-judge appellate panel – which adopted the ruling of a Maricopa County Superior Courtroom decide, which adopted a two-day bench trial – would put an finish to the incessant moaning and groaning and stamping of ft and outright slander of an excellent and respectable state.

However, in fact, Lake has already vowed to enchantment. In fact, she’s going to, if solely to maintain the rubes sending in these donations to her nonprofit – the one she claims is all about saving Arizona however I think is extra about constructing her checking account and maintaining herself politically related.

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And so, to Lake’s response of her newest defeat:

“BREAKING: I instructed you we’d take this case all the best way to the Arizona Supreme Courtroom, and that’s precisely what we’re going to do. Buckle up, America!” she tweeted, together with a useful hyperlink to her nonprofit.

Election denial, in spite of everything, is a profitable enterprise and Lake shouldn’t be about to disembark from this specific gravy prepare.

1st decide gave her 2 days in court docket

Right here in the actual world, Maricopa County Superior Courtroom Decide Peter Decide Thompson bent over backwards to offer Lake her day in court docket in December.

Two days, truly, during which the decide afforded her each alternative to show {that a} Maricopa County elections officer deliberately rigged the Nov. 8 election and that because of this, Lake misplaced.

Story continues

As an alternative, Lake introduced a parade of witnesses who supplied up opinions, hypothesis and a large quantity of wishful considering to attempt to persuade the decide that the Republican nominee was the sufferer of a fiendish plot by the Republican-run county.

In a 10-page ruling issued on Christmas Eve, Decide Thompson eviscerated the testimony of every of Lake’s witnesses … from the partisan pollster who testified that his exit ballot confirmed she ought to have gained … to the cyber knowledgeable who claimed the county shrunk ballots so that they couldn’t be counted, earlier than conceding that these ballots nonetheless would have been counted.

In a 12-page ruling issued late Thursday, the Courtroom of Appeals agreed with Thompson on each level.

2nd court docket agreed there was ‘no proof’

For instance, on Lake’s declare {that a} plot was afoot to shrink ballots or in any other case make them unreadable to tabulators:

“Lake introduced no proof that voters whose ballots have been unreadable by on-site tabulators weren’t in a position to vote,” Decide Cattani wrote. “On the contrary, Lake’s cybersecurity knowledgeable confirmed that any misconfigured ballots (or ballots that on-site tabulators couldn’t learn for different causes) may very well be submitted bodily by safe ‘Door 3,’ duplicated onto a readable poll by a bipartisan board at Maricopa County’s central tabulation facility, and finally counted.”

On her declare that lengthy traces on Election Day resulted in tens of hundreds of her voters not casting a poll:

“However Lake’s solely purported proof that these points had any potential impact on election outcomes was, fairly merely, sheer hypothesis,” he wrote.

And on her declare that Maricopa County slipped in 25,000 additional ballots as a result of an election evening estimate of “over 275,000” or “275,000+” early ballots dropped off on Election Day differed from the exact depend of 291,890 given as soon as all of the ballots have been scanned:

“Questionable arithmetic apart, Lake doesn’t clarify (or supply any authorized foundation) for a way the distinction between an preliminary estimate and a last, exact determine invalidates any vote,” he wrote.

Possibly now, please, will Lake simply cease?

And so, Lake misplaced. Once more.

“Voters have been in a position to solid their ballots…,” the appellate judges wrote. “Votes have been counted accurately.”

After 100 days of stamping her foot and spreading disinformation and operating across the nation defaming the state’s election employees, I’d wish to suppose the perpetually aggrieved Lake would simply cease.

That’d she muster up some shred of sophistication and dignity and in the end settle for the decision of the voters. And the decide. And the three appellate judges.

Neglect this phony quest for “election integrity”. Go on a hunt for some private integrity.

Attain Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Observe her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This text initially appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake loses once more. I, for one, am (not) SHOCKED