The second of three days scheduled for Kari Lake’s second election contest trial, which focused only on signature verification problems, wrapped up on Thursday, with Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson declining to grant the defendant’s motion for a directed verdict. Witness testimony focused on the speed that signature reviewers went over voters’ signatures on mail-in ballots, with many reviewers taking less than two seconds to compare signatures to see if they matched.
Lake tweeted after the second day of the trial concluded, “John Hancock was one of our founding fathers. He was a truly accomplished man. But the thing we most remember him most for is signing his own name. A lifetime of service summed up with a signature. A signature means a lot to this country. It means nothing to Maricopa County.”
John Hancock was one of our founding fathers. He was a truly accomplished man.
But the thing we most remember him most for is signing his own name.
A lifetime of service summed up with a signature. A signature means a lot to this country.
It means nothing to Maricopa County. pic.twitter.com/be3O4QKBlo
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) May 18, 2023
Maricopa County Elections Director Rey Valenzuela, who began testifying on Wednesday, returned to the witness stand. Lake’s attorney Brian Blehm asked him if employees conducted signature verification remotely from their homes without cameras or observers. Valenzuela ducked the question, responding, “There is not a set standard or protocol to do signature verification from home.” Blehm pressed him repeatedly to respond yes or no, until he finally admitted that it does take place.
Next, Erich Speckin of Speckin Forensics took the witness stand to discuss a spreadsheet he’d created showing how quickly signature reviewers examined signatures and what percentage they approved matching. Specklin’s expertise is in document examination and handwriting analysis.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times