Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake didn’t have a great day in court on Wednesday in her last-ditch attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election.
“Two hours in and this trial is already over,” wrote Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts. “Or it should be.”
Lake’s “star witness,” Roberts wrote, instead “proceeded to annihilate Lake’s case” once on the witness stand.
Lake, a former TV host who has turned into a conspiracy theorist and acolyte of Donald Trump, lost to Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes in November’s election.
Rather than concede, she has made a series of wild and unproven claims, and sued. While most of her legal claims have been dismissed, the Arizona Supreme Court is hearing her claims over the signature verification process in Maricopa County, where the bulk of the state’s voters live.
Lake claims the county failed to perform higher-level verification on ballots that were flagged for potential inconsistencies.
But Roberts said Lake’s witness, Jacqueline Onigkeit, spent an hour explaining how thorough that process is, with a week of training, multiple levels of review and reminders to be cautious and pay attention.
Another Lake witness also bolstered the county’s case, she added.
“As blockbusters go, Kari Lake is halfway there,” Roberts wrote. “If you count the ‘bust’ part.”
