An Arizona appeals court on Thursday rejected Kari Lake’s attempt to overthrow the results of last year’s gubernatorial election.
The Trump-backed former television anchor claimed widespread misconduct in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, resulted in her loss to her Democratic opponent, Governor Katie Hobbs.
But according to the court, all available evidence supports the conclusion that “voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results.”
Hobbs won the election by about 17,000 votes, but after alleging local election officials intentionally caused printers to malfunction on Election Day, Lake requested the court to declare her as the winner.
Late last year, after a two-day trial, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson found no evidence of the alleged misconduct and said the court couldn’t accept “speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence” — but she appealed that decision.
The appeals court ruling “affirms what we have known to be true for months,” Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Clint Hickman said in a statement later on Thursday.
“As we have said, every valid vote was counted in a midterm election that saw near-record turnout,” the Republican election official said.
Lake, a fierce defender of Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud, gained national attention last year after her colorful attacks on mainstream media went viral.
Shortly after the ruling, she took to social media to say that her fight is not over.
“I told you we would take this case all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, and that’s exactly what we are going to do,” she tweeted. “Buckle up, America!”
She also shared a link for those interested in donating to the “Save Arizona Fund,” a grassroots movement that seeks to “restore honest elections to our damaged system.