(SNews) – The Arizona Supreme Court has issued a new order sending a key piece of Kari Lake’s Election lawsuit back to the trial court for further review, securing a major win for the Republican.
Despite the win, however, corporate media outlets were quick to spin the news into a near death-blow to her chances of overturning the outcome of her 2022 state gubernatorial race.
The Arizona Republic: “Arizona Supreme Court rejects most of Kari Lake’s election challenge.”
KNXV-TV: “Arizona court declines most of Lake’s appeal over gov’s race.”
KPNX-TV: “Arizona court declines most of Kari Lake’s appeal over governor’s race.”
As the headlines note, “most” of the appeal was rejected.
On six of the seven counts, the court ruled there were “insufficient” grounds to overrule the decisions made in trial courts, according to KPHO-TV.
There was also much crowing about the fact that Lake could face sanctions for alleging that “35,563 unaccounted-for ballots were added to the total of ballots at a third-party processing facility.”
Brahm Resnick, a “politics & democracy” reporter for NBC affiliate KPNX, made a point of posting that section of the ruling on Twitter:
BREAKING Arizona Supreme Court grants @KariLake a review of 1 of her 7 claims challenging lower court rulings tossing her election contest. That part of case goes back to trial court.https://t.co/iRqAO8u1g0
— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik) March 23, 2023
However, “most” is not “all.”
The one ruling that went Lake’s way was huge — not only for her case but for election integrity as a whole.
In the ruling, the state Supreme Court found that the lower trial court erred in dismissing a challenge to signature verification procedures in the state’s most populous county, Maricopa County.
The matter was sent back to a trial court for consideration — and it could grant Lake’s team a review of how the signatures were verified.
“The county and appeals courts interpreted Lake’s signature-related challenge as applying to the policies themselves, not how the policies were applied in 2022, and dismissed her claim based on grounds that she filed her legal challenge too late,” the Arizona Republic noted.
“But that was an error, the Supreme Court said, noting, ‘Lake could not have brought this challenge before the election.’”
Lake, who lost by only 17,000 votes, was quick to tout Wednesday’s decision as “huge.”
This is huge. https://t.co/nfQ2oIL7Vu
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) March 23, 2023
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