Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has claimed a victory in her legal challenge against the race's results as her last-standing election misconduct claim was allowed to move forward in court on Monday.
Lake, who ran with Donald Trump's endorsement, lost Arizona's latest gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes but refused to concede. She filed a lawsuit against the election results, claiming that alleged irregularities in Maricopa County stopped her from winning in the state's most populous county.
Though her legal challenge was repeatedly rejected in the state, first by a judge and then by an appeals court, Lake has appealed to have her case heard in court. In March, the Arizona Supreme Court threw out six of seven claims in her legal challenge by the defeated Republican nominee but kept the case alive by ordering a trial court to conduct an additional review of the county's procedures for verifying signatures on mail-in ballots.
The case is scheduled to be heard at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 17, in Maricopa County.
On Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson—who rejected Lake's lawsuit back in December—approved one count in Lake's lawsuit, regarding signature verification procedures in the county, to continue in court.
Lake received the news triumphantly. On Twitter, she announced: "HUGE: Following Supreme Court Ruling, Maricopa County Judge grants @KariLake the opportunity to EXPOSE Election Fraud IN COURT!"
"We're going to Court. Get ready!" she added in a later tweet.
Political consultant Colton Duncan joined her in celebrating her result in court. I'm blown away," he wrote. "@KariLake promised the world that she would fight her Election Case to the bitter end & do EVERYTHING in her power to expose the fraud. She's not like most politicians. She was telling the truth. Now, her case goes to trial. Again, I am blown away.."
Lake's attorneys claim that Maricopa County accepted thousands of ballots that had been previously rejected by workers for having mismatched signatures. It had first been dismissed by a lower court that said Lake had waited too long to raise the claim but was revived by the state's Supreme Court's decision in March to ask the lower court to decide if there is any other reason to dismiss it. Newsweek has contacted Lake's team for comment by email.
Lake will have a chance to prove whether the signature verification procedures were mishandled by Maricopa County officials and whether this affected enough votes to potentially overturn the election's result.
Governor Hobbs has argued that Lake doesn't have evidence that specific mail-in ballots were illegally counted.
Maricopa County officials told Newsweek that the county is not commenting on litigation at this time.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
