(CBrief) – The Arizona Supreme Court has ordered proceedings in her case challenging Maricopa County signature verification processes in the 2022 election to take place “forthwith” while also denying defendants’ attorneys fees and granting one sanction.

As reported by Just the News, Lake, who ran as the Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee, lost the 2022 election to then-Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs by around 17,000 votes. She is now suing Hobbs, who is currently the governor, as well as Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Maricopa County election officials, and is seeking to invalidate the election results or be declared the winner.

Lake’s lawsuit was reviewed by the Arizona Supreme Court in March, which remanded one of her seven counts back to the trial court and allowed the consideration of sanctions against her.

The remanded count pertained to Lake’s claim that Maricopa County violated its signature verification policies during the 2022 election, the outlet’s report continued.

“The signature verification allegation was remanded to the Maricopa County Superior Court, which was waiting on the high court to determine if she must pay sanctions to Hobbs and Fontes regarding her claim of 35,563 unaccounted early ballots being added to Maricopa County’s final tally,” the report said.

On Thursday, the state’s high court granted a request by defendants of $2,000 in sanctions against Lake’s counsel for “asserting ‘the undisputed fact that 35,563 unaccounted for ballots were added to the total number of ballots,’ and for repeating such false assertions in an additional filing in this proceeding,” the ruling stated.

However, the defendants’ requests for attorneys’ fees as sanctions were denied by the justices. The court also ordered “that the trial court shall forthwith conduct such proceedings as appropriate to resolve” the charges regarding the alleged signature verification process violations.

Noted polling firm Rasmussen Reports following the high court’s ruling: “Apparently upwards of 300,000 mail ballots in Maricopa County Arizona will now be checked for missing or mismatched signature issues in a race that has captured international attention and is divided by less than 15,000 ‘votes.’ Waiting to see the actual court order.”

conservativebrief.com/ariz-kari-73066/