A legal representative for Kari Lake, a Republican candidate who was unsuccessful in the recent Arizona gubernatorial election against Democrat Katie Hobbs, described the state's Supreme Court decision on her legal challenge as a “second victory” in her campaign.
A Second Victory
Although the court rejected most of Lake's allegations contesting her defeat in the governor's race, they did order a review of her claim regarding signature-matching by sending it back to the Maricopa County trial court.
Emerald Robinson, a White House correspondent, reported on Twitter that Kurt Olsen, attorney for Republican candidate Kari Lake, announced a “second victory” following the Arizona Supreme Court's ruling on her legal challenge. Despite the court's dismissal of most of Lake's claims regarding her loss in the gubernatorial election, Olsen explained that the case marked progress by being the first to go to trial and allowing people to witness the evidence presented firsthand.
Kari Lake's legal team has landed another victory.
This after the court sided with her in regards to signature verification.@KariLake‘s attorney Kurt Olsen joined @EmeraldRobinson with an update.
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/K6UfXA6zLl
— The Absolute Truth with @EmeraldRobinson (@AbsoluteWithE) March 23, 2023
Olsen first gained national attention when he assisted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in filing a lawsuit against Trump's election loss in the Supreme Court last year. He later reportedly discussed a strategy to reverse Trump's defeat with the former president on the day of the Capitol riots.
Despite being sanctioned for bringing “similarly baseless suits” in the past, Kurt Olsen and the other attorneys representing Kari Lake persisted in challenging the election result. After the Arizona Supreme Court dismissed six of Lake's claims, a superior court judge in Maricopa County is now reviewing the claim that the county didn't follow signature verification procedures.
Signature Verification
Olsen explained that the issue of signature verification is “very, very significant,” citing “over a hundred thousand ballots in question because of invalid signatures that were accepted in tabulate.” However, Lake and her legal team will have to present evidence that Maricopa County's use of signature matching on early mail-in ballots didn't comply with Arizona law in order to win their case in the trial court.
Trump has continued to make baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, allegations that Lake, who had the former president's endorsement, has consistently supported. Lake has claimed that she would have won the Arizona gubernatorial election had it not been for ballot printers and tabulation machines malfunctioning in Maricopa County, but both Maricopa County Judge Peter Thompson and the Arizona Court of Appeals dismissed her legal challenge for lack of evidence.
While Robinson described the Supreme Court's ruling as “somewhat of a win” for Lake, Olsen highlighted the progress made in being the first case to go to trial and present evidence. He believed that it was the second victory in Lake's campaign, as the case marked progress in raising awareness of the evidence presented in the challenge. The interview with Robinson and Olsen is available on Twitter.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.