Former GOP candidates for statewide office Kari Lake and Mark Finchem lost their federal appeal in their effort to ban voting machines and will still have to pay a six-figure sanction in the case.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted in a 12-page ruling on Monday that "none" of Finchem's and Lake's allegations support the idea that future elections could be marred because of electronic ballot-tabulation machines. They only presented "conjectural" claims that relied on a series of hypothetical circumstances "that have never occurred in Arizona" but which needed to take place if the court was to find any harm to the plaintiffs, the ruling states.
Finchem and Lake are no longer candidates for the 2022 election and have no standing to sue, the appeals court ruled, nor did they present any evidence they had been harmed by the county's actions in using voting machines.
"In any event," the ruling says, "the district court correctly held that Plaintiffs, who claim no past injury, failed to establish that a future injury was either imminent or substantially likely to occur."
Neither Finchem nor Lake returned calls or responded to questions about whether they'd appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The only thing worse than coming into court with no facts is coming with no standing: either way, it's not going to be a good day," said Tom Liddy, a deputy county attorney who served as one of the county lawyers defending against the anti-machine case.
Lake, who's now running for the U.S. Senate , and Finchem claimed in the lawsuit filed in April 2022 that ballot tabulation machines were untrustworthy and shouldn't be used without running "objective" tests. Their complaint echoed conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems and vote-tabulating machines put forth by former President Donald Trump and his legal team after he lost to Biden in 2020, and they both used the claim of voting problems in an attempt to bolster their 2022 campaigns for governor and secretary of state, respectively. Lake lost by more than 17,000 votes to Democrat Katie Hobbs, and Finchem lost to Democrat Adrian Fontes by more than 120,000 votes.
Tuchi, after ruling against what he deemed their "frivolous complaint" in December, ordered the lawyers for Finchem and Lake to pay sanctions for bringing their evidenceless arguments to a court of law. The sanction amount of $122,200 was finalized in July .
Finchem has taken initial steps to run for the state Senate in the Prescott-centered Legislative District 1, though it's unclear if he lives in the district . He's listed a mobile home as an address in Prescott but also has two addresses listed in Maricopa County, where he apparently considered running for county recorder against fellow Republican Stephen Richer this year.
Lake is still awaiting a ruling in a lawsuit she filed earlier this year challenging her lost election based on the idea that the county's ballot signature verification process was flawed. A two-day trial was held in late September over her demands that the county release 1.3 million ballot envelopes signed by voters. Lake has a separate, failed election challenge pending in the state appellate court.
Liddy noted that the 9th Circuit agreed that Maricopa County elections had "robust safeguards" to protect the integrity of elections.
"The reality is that the 9th Circuit upheld that there is no evidence of anybody ever hacking into Maricopa County election machines," Liddy said. "The people of Arizona should be confident in the electoral process provided to them by the Arizona Legislature and administered by the 15 counties."
Unbelievable how there seems to be NO relief in the Arizona judicial system. Are all the AZ judges on the cabal payroll?
Epstein Island.
They make ridiculous rulings based on doing what they are told.
We have to start ignoring their bullshit. All of us.
I guess military is the only way....
Sorry to be a doomer but the same military that is about to send another generation of Americans overseas to die for nothing?
Q is part of that military.
New Mexico is pretty close by, wonder how many AZ officials liked to visit Epstein's NM ranch
all of them...
If it is the same case, it all started when Maricopa District Judge removed 8 of 10 complaints, right at the beginning.
Here's a list of counts that were dismissed (after just a 75 minute deliberation):
None of the 8 counts were even considered, so they can't be appealed.
IMO, Thompson is blackmailed and controlled beyond belief.
Agree, I watched the trial. Everyone bought & paid for...
Not only in AZ, but this is at the federal level with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals making this outrageous ruling.
Rush Limbaugh used to call them the 9th Circus Court of Appeals. Always had a good laugh when he said it and I continue to think of that Court the same way.
Awful... We are not even allowed to view the source code to see how votes are tabulated. It is vender proprietary software.
This is something that has to be corrected by the state legislators, to protect what could happen. (of course it did) It is bound in state law.
How can basic addition be "proprietary"? Isn't that the requirement for voting? Adding?
Thanks for posting, very disappointing. Bought and paid for crooked cabal judges always use the term, "you have NO STANDING" to quietly shut you down. There is so much circumstantial evidence that show that these Fraudmaster Voter Machines do adjudicate the votes with a preset algorithm. Its really unfortunate that Kari and Mark could not get access to the data logs which would have been enough, and of course have access to the source code. Blocking access to these Dominion and Smartmatic machines clearly says that the Deep State has something to hide. Every State needs to ban these machines permanently and get back to paper ballots that are hand counted without using any electronic tabulators, its not complicated at all, that's how we used to do it.
Yup. Hand counts worked just great before. Too transparent for the criminals. Then the judge has the audacity to slap Lake and Finchem with a fine for bringing this lawsuit! Unbelievable how bad our judicial system is right now.
"They only presented "conjectural" claims that relied on a series of hypothetical circumstances "that have never occurred in Arizona" but which needed to take place if the court was to find any harm to the plaintiffs, the ruling states."
So then, when it is proven that election fraud via machines DID happen, proving there was harm to the plaintiff, what happens to this case?
Are these cases setting up a series of dominoes?
Could very well be setting up dominos. That is a very optimistic view. And, sounds about right. Expose the corruption and set the cabal up for a massive fall.
"No standing", ahh this BS again.
I can't wait till these judges are hanging
Me too
"who claim no past injury"
They refused to hear the injury then apparently threw its head in the sand and fingers in ears screaming lalalalala I cant hear you. We are dealing with children.
Children of Satan, no less.
What this really means: Shut up peasants, sit down and enjoy your 15 minute city. You get no vote, and you get no say in this.
Ah the bullshit continues.
Stolen elections have consequences....
You know we’re practically (going to be very soon anyway) less than a year away from voting in 2024 and there has been very little movement in MASSIVE coast to coast voting reform.
So two things:
"The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals" well there's your trouble right there.
An extremely leftist packed court which has gifted our country many terrible decisions, specifically the one which makes it ILLEGAL for cities to remove homeless people from public property, and is the root cause of all the homeless trouble (well, legally speaking) all across the western states.
Just reading though the wiki on this and it seems to me that this court has grown so large (many judges) and covers such a huge number of cases that it should be split into multiple smaller courts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit
disgusting.
It is apparent our institutions are irredeemably corrupt, so what exactly is it going to take for the “military is the only way” to kick off.
Damn.
So much for the audit
OK, Arizona is lost. We got other states.
9th circuit…. Left coast’s sweethearts… bwahahaha
I’d say it’s highly probable that this was orchestrated for optics. Set a precedent that elections can never be challenged. That way, when they dig up “Russian collusion” again when Trump wins in a landslide next year, it just gets immediately shut down with the exact same “most secure election in history” line, thus exposing their hypocrisy. I’d also advocate for us digging into the political funding behind anyone on the state’s side, AGs, prosecutors, judges, etc. I guarantee you there’s some kind of slush fund/dark money ring with a blackmail scheme as a backup to ensure total compliance on their part. Oh, and the media can’t just cheer on Dems when they lose and cry fraud, and immediately shut down any discussion of fraud when a Rep loses (I’m talking MAGA, not RINOs, because they’re one in the same with Dems and almost always get positive media attention). Sorry for my autistic rant.
TL;DR: This ruling sets a bad precedent for the cabal. Their own narrative gets 180’d on them. We should then look closely at their finances. The media has had an obvious problem with one-sided hypocrisy.
Interesting interview discussing election funding. An eye opener.
https://rumble.com/v3p106a-caroline-wren-a-lethal-weapon-has-been-unleashed-on-the-establishment.html
it slays me how many traitors we have in our judicial system that have no problems destroying our country!
Stolen elections have consequences....
Sorry, weren't you bitching all Trump's term about muh Russian interference?
You were bitching, little leftist.