Lake, who filed the lawsuit during her failed campaign for governor in 2022, challenged whether the state’s electronic voting machines assured “a fair and accurate vote.” Two lower courts dismissed the suit, finding that Lake and former Republican state lawmaker Mark Finchem had not been harmed in a way that allowed them to sue.

Calling the precise nature of Lake’s claim “not clear,” the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the lawsuit was based on speculative concerns that the machines could be hacked.

Although Lake and Finchem cited “opinions by purported experts on manipulation risk” in the lawsuit, they did “not contend that any electronic tabulation machine in Arizona has ever been hacked,” the appeals court said. On appeal, the court continued, lawyers for Lake “conceded that their arguments were limited to potential future hacking, and not based on any past harm.”