The court case, initially scheduled for March this year, will be heard by judges on February 1, giving Hobbs—who’s already been sworn in as Arizona’s newly elected governor—until January 17 to write why Lake’s petition to the court should be rejected.
The state’s Court of Appeals agreed to treat Lake’s case as a “special action petition,” as the Trump-endorsed candidate had requested, in a brief order issued on January 9 and made public the following day.
Lake shared the news of the case being expedited on Twitter Friday without commenting on what that means for her petition, though she also re-tweeted a post from Kari Lake War Room—the official account for her gubernatioral campaign—saying: “Do not underestimate Kari Lake’s desire to get justice for the people of Arizona. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. She will see this through.”
Newsweek has contacted Lake’s team for comment.
After the midterm votes were counted, Lake refused to concede the race to Hobbs, despite the state’s former secretary of state obtaining more than 17,000 votes over the Republican candidate and former TV host.
Instead, Lake legally challenged the results of the election, demanding that the court either to declare her the real winner of the race or rerun the election in Maricopa County, where voters reported facing technical difficulties on election day.
In late December, the case was thrown out in a two-day trial by Maricopa County superior court judge Peter Thompson, who rejected Lake’s claim that there had been problems with ballot printers at polling stations on November 8.
That didn’t discourage the Republican candidate, who then petitioned both the state’s Appeals Court and Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied the petition, asking for the Court of Appeals to hear Lake’s case first.
Lake claims that she would have won or would have had a better chance of winning if ballot printers in Maricopa County had worked properly on November 8.
