WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita mathematician who sued get voting machine tapes in order to audit statistical anomalies in the 2014 election plans to appeal a judge’s ruling that prohibits her from getting access to them.

Judge Tim Lahey denied on Thursday a motion by Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman to dismiss statistician Beth Clarkson’s open records case.

The Wichita Eagle reports that ruling is a hollow victory since the point of the lawsuit she filed last year was to check the accuracy of voting machines.

The judge told her attorney, Randy Rathbun, that he couldn’t order the county to turn over the tapes because Clarkson had presented the same issues in an earlier 2013 lawsuit she lost when she had no legal representation. The law prohibits fighting the same legal issue twice.