A three-day trial is set to begin Wednesday over the only remaining legal claim in Republican Kari Lake’s challenge. half a year of her defeat Democrat Katie Hobbs ran for governor of Arizona.

The former TV anchor was one of the most vocal propagandists of last year’s Republican nominees for ex-President Donald Trump’s election lies, and made it a campaign centerpiece.

Most of the other election naysayers across the country conceded after losing the November campaign, but Mr. Lake did not. She lost to Hobbes by more than 17,000 votes.

The court dismissed most of her cases, Arizona Supreme Court Reinstates One Claim The issue challenges the implementation of signature verification procedures for early voting in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of the state’s voters.

Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson said: Judgment Monday Lake alleges that Maricopa County officials failed to verify higher-level signatures on mail-in ballots that were identified as inconsistent by lower-level inspectors. Lake’s attorneys claim they challenge any level of signature verification.

Three lower-level signature verification officials who filed forms with the court on Mr. Lake’s behalf said they experienced rejection rates due to mismatched signatures on 15% to 40% of the ballots they encountered.

Attorneys for the Arizona Elections Authority said officials’ speculation about the signature verification process did not constitute a violation of the law or election official misconduct, and they did not know the specific ballot results flagged by three officials. questioned whether it was possible.

Mr. Lake does not contest whether the voter’s signature on the ballot envelope matches the signature on the ballot record.

In a judgment Monday night, Thompson declined to dismiss Lake’s claims.

Lake faces the high hurdle of proving not only her claims about the signature verification effort, but that it influenced her election results.

County officials said they had nothing to hide and were confident they would win in court.

Mr. Lake’s attorneys argue that Maricopa County was flooded with mail-in ballots at a time when there were too few officials to verify signatures on ballots. Her attorneys said the county finally accepted thousands of ballots that had previously been rejected by workers for inconsistent signatures.

By reinstating the claim, the Arizona Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that found Lake took too long to file his claim.

At the beginning of the lawsuit, Mr. Lake focused on problems with ballot machines at some polling places in Maricopa County. Ballots produced by faulty printers were too thin to be read by on-site counters at polling stations. Amidst the chaos, lines were jammed in some areas. Lake argued that the ballot problem was the result of deliberate fraud.

County officials said those affected by the press were taken to a more sophisticated counter at election headquarters so everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were tallied.

In mid-February Arizona Court of Appeals Dismisses Lake’s ClaimIt concluded that there was no evidence that voters whose ballots could not be read by poll workers could not vote.

The next month, the state Supreme Court refused to hear nearly all of Lake’s appeals, saying there was no evidence to support her claim that more than 35,000 votes were added to the ballot total.

Earlier this month, the court Fined Lake’s lawyer $2,000 For falsely alleging that more than 35,000 ballots were improperly added to the total.

The trial, which begins Wednesday, will be the second in Mr. Lake’s election challenge.