Takeaway From Day One of Kari Lake's Second Trial: Lake's Losing Streak Continues

[brooklynite]

Democracy Docket

Day one was largely uneventful, with Lake and Maricopa County’s attorneys presenting their opening statements to the court. Then, Lake’s attorney called witnesses — or as Lake calls them, “whistleblowers” — to the stand to testify. One of these “whistleblowers,”Jacqueline Onigkeit, worked as a signature matcher during the election and testified to her experience doing signature verification.

Onigkeit spent almost an hour explaining the training required to do signature verification as well as the intricacies of the process itself. Onigkeit explained: “I was very focused on verifying signatures, doing the right job and making sure whether or not the signature matched.” She also highlighted the level of scrutiny to which the signature verifiers were held. “We were informed several times…that we were being audited every day. And if we were approving too many signatures or rejecting too many signatures, we’d be pulled into the office, get a warning, and if it happened a second time, we’d be let go,” she explained.

The court heard from other witnesses including two members of a fringe political action group partially funded by conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell called We the People AZ Alliance. Their testimonies were brief and they discussed a 24/7 livestream of the signature verification process, which Lake has to prove did not occur for her claims to be successful in court.

The trial is expected to start again at 12 p.m. EDT today.

[lame54]

1. Depends on what her actual plan is