A Maricopa County judge handling former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s second trial, in which she’s seeking to set aside her loss to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, is expected to begin deliberating the case on Friday.
It is unlikely Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson will rule Friday, the final installment of a three-day trial, and his decision could be days or weeks out.
Maricopa County Elections Director Rey Valenzuela was expected to finish his testimony on behalf of the county when the trial resumes in the morning. The key issue for the court to determine is whether Maricopa County followed state law and verified that voters’ signatures on ballot affidavit envelopes matched the signature in their voter records.
Lake, the Republican nominee for governor and a former television news anchor, argues the county didn’t do so.
But on the first day of trial, two of her own witnesses confirmed they participated in signature verification.
On the second day of trial, on Thursday, a signature verification specialist testified that the rapid pace, sometimes just two or three seconds, of some signature verification work was impossible. However, Valenzuela offered several examples of when a quick check was possible, such as if a signature was missing or was an identical match to what was in the voter’s record.
Lake in December filed a lawsuit challenging her loss to Hobbs by about 17,000 votes. Her team presented evidence during a two-day trial in December, and Thompson found no grounds to declare Lake the winner.
The Court of Appeals affirmed his decision, and the Arizona Supreme Court largely did as well, though it sent the single signature verification issue back to Thompson for reconsideration, saying he used the wrong legal reasoning to dismiss the count. That is what led to the trial that began Wednesday.
Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.
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