Conservative firebrand Kari Lake said she’s highly confident in a legal victory in her upcoming trial after a judge ruled that Maricopa County’s signature verification process was unlawful.
After Yavapai County Superior Court Judge John Napper issued a ruling last week deeming some of Arizona’s signature verification procedures violated state law, Ms. Lake released a statement on Sept. 6, expressing her “utmost confidence” that she will prevail in her election-related legal dispute against Arizona state officials.
“Following this ruling, I have the utmost confidence that we will win our lawsuit to review the early ballot signatures later this month,” Ms. Lake said in the statement.
My statement on the HUGE ruling finding Maricopa County VIOLATED Arizona’s signature verification laws⤵️https://t.co/Ui2QrHlg6H pic.twitter.com/iIKsLDUypj
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) September 7, 2023
Ms. Lake’s legal dispute against Arizona state officials stems from claims that she was robbed of victory in November 2022 due in part to alleged improper ballot signature verification procedures.
Several courts ruled against her but she appealed and the Arizona Supreme Court recently decided that appeal is now due for a Sept. 21 trial, where her concerns about signature verification issues will be aired and considered by the court.
Ms. Lake’s statement expressing confidence that she’ll prevail at trial comes after Judge John Napper issued a ruling last week (pdf) in a lawsuit against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes brought by public interest group Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE).
The group alleged that Mr. Fontes broke the law regarding mail-in ballot signature verification procedures. Specifically, the group argued that Mr. Fontes’ interpretation of “registration record” in the Secretary of State’s Elections Procedures Manual was unreasonably broad and improperly expanded the pool of signatures to which an early ballot affidavit signature could be compared, increasing the risk of false positives.
“While state law requires county recorders to match mail-ballot signatures with signatures in the voter’s ‘registration record,’ the Secretary instructed them to use a broader and less reliable universe of comparison signatures,” RITE said in a Sept. 5 statement on the court ruling.
“That means the Secretary was requiring ballots to be counted despite using a signature that did not match anything in the voter’s registration record. This was a clear violation of state law,” the group added.
By Tom Ozimek
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