PHOENIX (AP) — The trial in a lawsuit introduced by Kari Lake, the defeated Arizona Republican nominee for governor, to get entry to 1.3 million voters’ signed poll envelopes is now within the fingers of a decide after wrapping up noon Monday.
Maricopa County Superior Court docket Decide John Hannah mentioned he would problem a ruling as quickly as doable after closing arguments within the two-day bench trial.
Lake was not in attendance after showing Thursday.
Maricopa County election officers argue state legislation mandates the signatures on the envelopes stay confidential.
Lake’s lawyer counters she has a proper to look into how the county runs its election operations and that folks’s signatures are public elsewhere, reminiscent of property deeds.
That is Lake’s third trial associated to her election loss. Lake beforehand misplaced two trials that challenged her competitor Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ win by greater than 17,000 votes. Within the second trial, a decide rejected a misconduct declare Lake made about poll signature verification efforts in Maricopa County, dwelling to Phoenix and the place greater than 60% of the state’s voters reside.
The previous TV anchor’s newest case doesn’t problem her defeat and as an alternative is a public data lawsuit that asks to overview all early poll envelopes with voter signatures in Maricopa County, the place officers had denied her request for these paperwork.
In Arizona, the envelopes for early voting ballots function affidavits by which voters declare, underneath penalty of perjury, that they’re registered to vote within the county, haven’t already voted and won’t vote once more in that election.