By James Oliphant
(Reuters) - Lawyers for Republican Kari Lake, who lost her bid last month to become Arizona’s governor, were in court Wednesday arguing that the election was invalid and should be overturned.
Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by about 17,000 votes in the Nov. 8 election. A central tenet of her gubernatorial campaign was endorsing former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Following her loss, Lake refused to concede and sued to have the result vacated under Arizona’s election laws. She is seeking to either have a new election held or be declared the winner.
Maricopa County Judge Peter Thompson threw out the bulk of Lake's claims, but allowed two to go forward in a two-day bench trial.
Lake has argued that printer problems in Maricopa County on election day resulted in thousands of voters' being unable to cast votes, something the county has said isn’t true.
Lake must clear a high evidentiary bar to succeed at trial - essentially having to prove that county election officials and a private contractor intentionally took actions to sway the election and that their conduct was the reason Lake lost to Hobbs.
The county denies any wrongdoing. Hobbs will not testify at the trial.
Thompson will ultimately rule in time to give the losing side a chance to appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court. Hobbs is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 2.
At a conservative gathering earlier this week, Lake expressed confidence that her lawsuit would succeed. Marc Elias, an election attorney whose firm is representing Hobbs, said on Twitter that Lake had little chance of prevailing under the law.
“Proving intentional wrongdoing and that it affected the outcome of the election will be impossible for Lake,” Elias wrote.