(Headline USA) Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake won a legal victory before the state’s Supreme Court this week, with the court striking down all but one of the sanctions filed against her by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’s campaign, and expediting a review of more than 300,000 mail-in ballots in Maricopa County.
Hobbs’s attorneys claimed Lake and her attorneys should face sanctions for alleging voter fraud during Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election.
Lake’s lawyer’s argued that sanctions were not appropriate because Lake honestly believed her campaign had been hurt by inappropriate electoral conduct.
The court sided with Lake’s team on all but one count, ruling that she did not have to pay attorney fees to cover the costs of defending Hobbs, but that she did need to pay a fine of $2,000 for making “false factual statements” that more than 35,000 ballots had been improperly added to Maricopa County’s total ballot count.
The state Supreme Court also acknowledged that Lake’s challenge of the signature verification procedure in Maricopa County is ongoing, and urged the lower courts to expedite a review of it.
In a previous ruling upholding Lake’s right to question the signature verification process, the state Supreme Court said, “Contrary to the ruling of the trial court and the Court of Appeals Opinion, this signature verification challenge is to the application of the policies, not to the policies themselves. Therefore, it was erroneous to dismiss this claim…because Lake could not have brought this challenge before the election.”
At the time, Lake celebrated the court’s decision hoped the lower courts would give “our signature verification evidence the appropriate forum for the evaluation it deserves,” she said.
“For years signatures have been a third rail for Maricopa County,” she said in a statement.
“The process of verifying these signatures is the only security measure on mail-in ballots,” she added. “The amount of time allotted to check these signatures was only 8 seconds, which is not humanly possible. The system is completely broken. That’s why they are absolutely terrified of letting anyone take a look at their signatures.”
