Kari Lake lost the Arizona governor's race, fair and square. It's time to concede

To absolutely no one’s surprise, a judge on Monday ruled that Kari Lake was not robbed of her right to be Arizona’s governor.

Again, that is.

The “BOMBSHELLS” have been examined, the search for the “smoking gun” exhaustive.

After two trials and two appeals — and 196 days since the voters spoke — it comes down really to these nine words:

“The evidence received does not support Plaintiff’s remaining claim,” Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson wrote.

The only remaining question now is whether Lake can produce some evidence that she is the leader she claims to be.

Kari Lake has lost before multiple judges

A brief review of the record is in order.

Lake lost her challenge to the Nov. 8 election in Superior Court.

She lost at the Arizona Court of Appeals. She largely lost at the Arizona Supreme Court, though the justices returned one claim to the trial court judge for a second look.

And on Monday, she lost that one, too, after a three-day trial in which Judge Thompson relaxed the court rules and allowed her bumbling attorneys a remarkable amount of latitude to make their case.

Mistakes made at trial: Yet Lake's judge showed them leniency

Over two trials her lawyers have presented a parade of witnesses and “experts” who offered up opinions, speculation and a sizable amount of wishful thinking to try to convince Thompson that the Republican nominee was the victim of a fiendish plot by the Republican-run county.

What they didn’t offer up was any actual evidence to back up their theories.

'Expert' witnesses have proven nothing

In his December 10-page ruling and now another six-page ruling, Judge Thompson eviscerated the testimony of each of Lake’s witnesses …

… From the partisan pollster who testified that his exit poll showed she should have won …

… To the cyber expert who claimed the county shrunk ballots so they couldn’t be counted (before conceding that those ballots still would have been counted) …

… To the forensic documents analyst who opined last week that 70,000 early ballot signatures were too quickly verified.

“Even if the Court had a basis for disqualifying 70,000 ballots under the proportional reduction method prescribed in Grounds v. Lawe, given the mathematical computation set forth in her Response to Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, Plaintiff would not prevail,” Thompson wrote, in his Monday ruling.

In other words, Lake lost. She could not make up the oh-so-slim 17,117-vote deficit that made Katie Hobbs Arizona’s governor.

So, now, Kari Lake has a choice to make

Lake has been relatively quiet since Thompson's ruling on Monday, though she did tease that a “big announcement” is coming on Tuesday.

So, now Lake has a choice — an opportunity, actually, to do something for the state she claims to love.

She can let this go.

She can accept the verdict of the 1,287,891 Arizonans who voted for the other guy — and of the 11 judges who have looked at her challenge and found it lacking.

Or she can continue her coast-to-coast temper tantrum — her wholly unsupported complaint that anybody and everybody who touched this election is corrupt.

She can continue to swing her trademark sledgehammer to tear apart the state she claims to love. No doubt, it’s a great way to raise money for her next race.

It's time to concede the governor's race

But it takes more than a rousing rally to be a real leader.

Go back, Ms. Lake, and reread Judge Thompson’s first ruling in December. The part where he said this:

“It bears mentioning that election workers themselves were attested to by both Plaintiff’s witnesses and the Defendants’ witnesses as being dedicated to performing their role with integrity,” he wrote.

“Not perfectly, as no system on this earth is perfect, but more than sufficient to comply with the law and conduct a valid election.”

It’s much too late to lose with grace, but Lake can muster some shred of dignity by doing the right thing right now.

Accept the verdict, Kari. Concede the race.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake lost her trial and the governor's race. Time to concede