The Kari Lake Saga continues as the firecracker News Anchor turned Politician continues the fight for election integrity. On May 17th the trial for Arizona 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake’s election challenge kicked off.
The trial’s first day started with a witness testifying that early ballot signature reviewers and ballot curers in Maricopa County were told to leave early. The order was given even though there were ballots that still needed reviewing or curing at the time.
READY —– UPDATE: “This Was COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Names” – Maricopa County Signature Reviewer Testifies in Kari Lake Trial Trial Felt “Pressured” by Supervisors Sending Already Rejected Signatures Back to Them for Approval via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/f77yaUrsJk
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) May 17, 2023
Lake attorney Kurt Olsen called Jacqueline Onigkeit as a witness. Onigkeit was a level 1 signature reviewer for both the 2022 primary and general elections.
Onigkeit testified under direct examination that she was trained by Maricopa County in signature verification. She explained that reviewers were to examine 11 points of each signature on early ballot affidavit envelopes to verify that they matched either previous envelopes or the voter registration form. The signatures were reviewed in batches of about 250 envelopes. Rules required reviewers to examine these batches twice.
Kari Lake Trial Update: 274k Ballot Signatures Approved at LESS THAN 3 Seconds Each via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/TK6P06uNjT
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) May 17, 2023
In her testimony, Onigkeit explained that they were told multiple times that they were being monitored. She was told that if reviewers were approving or rejecting too many signatures, even after discussing it with their superior, they would be removed. She also explained that according to the rules, reviewers could be asked to testify on the signatures that they approve and reject.
She explained that at the time of the 2022 gubernatorial election, the three, level 2 signature reviewers, who had more signatures to compare a voter’s signature to than the level 1 reviewers, were overwhelmed. The level 2 reviewers would send rejected signatures back to level 1 reviewers to double-check.
On Day 1 of Arizona election trial, Kari Lake elicits evidence challenging signature verifications | Just The News https://t.co/42ZPWjUX02
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) May 18, 2023
It is customary during a primary election that reviewers who analyzed signatures would work late and stay until the last possible day to complete their review. However, Onigkeit testified that reviewers were told to leave before the end of the last day when there were still ballots that hadn’t been reviewed.
She was also a ballot curer for the 2022 election. She added in her testimony that ballot curers were told to leave early on the last day of curing when there were still approximately 6-7,000 ballots left to be cured.
