Arizona’s Court of Appeals has given Republican Kari Lake a procedural victory in her lawsuit contesting the results of the 2022 election for governor.
Lake came out on the short end of the counting to Democrat Katie Hobbs, who has already taken office.
However, Lake has maintained there were a number of election irregularities centered in Maricopa County, including printer problems that led to many ballots being rejected, as well as long lines at polling places. As a result, she is suing to have a new election held in the county.
On Tuesday, the court issued an order agreeing to handle the lawsuit as a special action, which Lake’s legal team had requested, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
“Our appeal was accepted on its merits. Which means, contrary to what @katiehobbs & her Pravda media say, the Court recognizes this lawsuit has value. Our evidence will be given due consideration before the court. That scares the hell out of Hobbs & Company. It should,” Lake tweeted.
Our appeal was accepted on its merits.
Which means, contrary to what @katiehobbs & her Pravda media say, the Court recognizes this lawsuit has value.
Our evidence will be given due consideration before the court.
That scares the hell out of Hobbs & Company.
It should. pic.twitter.com/Sa1gdCccKk
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 13, 2023
Lawyers for Hobbs have until Tuesday to marshal their arguments against Lake.
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The three-judge panel will hear Lake’s case on Feb. 1.
The case had originally been scheduled to be heard in March, according to Newsweek.
In tweeting the news to her supporters, Lake wrote, “Do not underestimate @KariLake’s desire to get justice for the people of Arizona. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. She will see this through.”
Our appeal is scheduled to be heard before the court on February 1st.
Do not underestimate @KariLake‘s desire to get justice for the people of Arizona.
It doesn’t matter how long it takes.
She will see this through. https://t.co/3wgs5eyKOP
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 12, 2023
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson last month rejected Lake’s claims that the printer issues were a result of a deliberate plan to lower the number of Republicans who would vote that day, according to the Daily Star.
Lake claimed chain-of-custody rules for ballots were not followed in Maricopa County and alleged that signatures on the envelopes containing early ballots failed to match those on file.
.@KariLake: “They want us not to vote again. We can’t let them have that. They want us going back, putting our head in the sand, and falling back asleep, and not reclaiming our country. We’re not going to let them have that. We will not let them have that victory.” pic.twitter.com/cdI120x4WL
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 13, 2023
At one point, Lake wanted to leapfrog over the appellate court and take her case directly to Arizona’s state Supreme Court, but the higher court rejected her request.
In a legal filing, the GOP candidate’s attorneys wrote that the evidence put forward at trial proved that Maricopa County officials “caused the chaos arising at nearly two-thirds of Maricopa’s 223 vote centers [on Election Day], admitted after first denying, the illegally misconfigured ballots were injected into the election, causing tabulators to rejects tens of thousands of ballots, disproportionately targeting Republican voters.”
