Day One of Kari Lake’s Second Election Trial Features Testimony That Voters’ Signatures Were Approved Too Fast to be Verified

After being ordered by the Arizona Supreme Court to reconsider the issue of signature verification in Kari Lake’s election contest, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson decided after a hearing that he would allow a full trial. He declined to allow reconsideration of the faulty ballot-on-demand printer configurations, however, which resulted in mostly Republicans having problems casting ballots on Election Day. The trial began on Wednesday, with Lake’s attorneys emphasizing how the signature verification of voters’ signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes was conducted so quickly it was impossible to adequately verify them.

Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen accused the county of falsely verifying signatures. “Maricopa’s log file data shows that 11 of these signature verification workers approved 170,000 signatures at a rate of between 0 and 2.99 seconds with a 99.97 percent approval rating,” he said. “That’s not signature review, your Honor.” Olsen said due to this, at least 334,000 mail-in ballots were not verified.

Lake’s attorneys displayed a video showing two Level 1 signature verification employees going through signatures on computer screens. While one takes his time, another one spends less than a second on each, clicking through the screens quickly.

A whistleblower testified that Level 1 signature verification employees were sent home early at 7 p.m. and instead the verification was conducted at the recorder’s office with no observers present.

One of the Level 1 signature verification employees testified. Andy Meyers, who worked in signature verification during both the 2022 primary and general elections, told Lake’s attorney Brian Blehm that despite the fact there were far more ballots cast during the general election than during the primary election, the number of Level 2 signature verification employees did not increase. Level 2 is responsible for signatures that have been flagged by Level 1 as questionable. If determined they match, Level 2 approves the ballots. If there are still questions, Level 2 returns the ballot back to the Level 1 reviewers for “curing,” which requires the reviewer to contact the voter to confirm their identity.

Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times

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