A judge overseeing Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s electoral lawsuit ordered Lake, Secretary of State and Arizona Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors officials, and others to appear at a court hearing on Tuesday.
Judge Peter Thompson, in issuing the (pdf) order, wrote that the court has “reviewed” Lake’s “verified statement of election contest” and said the “matter will be set on an accelerated basis.” Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates were also ordered to attend the hearing, which will start at 2 p.m. ET.
It comes as Lake stated Monday that her lawsuit is, in part, fueled by alleged whistleblower claims who have come forward.
“We’ve had three whistleblowers from Maricopa County reach out and say the system is seriously flawed,” Lake told Just the News on Monday, days after the suit was filed with a Maricopa County court. “They were throwing out tens of thousands of signatures saying they were scribbles that in no way matched. But somewhere between there, the ballots were being completely tossed out and they got looped back into the system and counted as if they were fine.”
Lake said that about 25,000 “additional ballots and early voting ballots were discovered two days after Election Day,” adding that they “just showed up.” She continued: “It shows the whole system has serious problems.”
“We believe that up to 135,000 ballots were pushed through that should not have been pushed through,” Lake added, without elaborating. “We’re asking a judge to let us take a look at all of the envelopes and compare signatures, so that we can find out for sure how many bad, fraudulent ballots got through in that way, of basically cheating or breaking the rules.”
The Epoch Times has contacted Maricopa County’s election division about Lake’s claims on Monday.
