{"id":1933837,"date":"2023-05-19T03:38:15","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T07:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maricopa-county-election-director-accidentally-drops-2020-bombshell-during-kari-lake-trial\/"},"modified":"2023-05-19T09:05:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T13:05:35","slug":"maricopa-county-election-director-accidentally-drops-2020-bombshell-during-kari-lake-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maricopa-county-election-director-accidentally-drops-2020-bombshell-during-kari-lake-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Kari Lake Trial: Election Director&#8217;s Surprising Disclosure."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmaricopa-county-election-director-accidentally-drops-2020-bombshell-during-kari-lake-trial%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1933837&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Maricopa County Elections Director Drops Bombshell Testimony About Mail-In Ballot Reviews<\/h2>\n<p>The ongoing election challenge trial in Arizona just got even more intense. Maricopa County Elections Director Reynaldo Valenzuela testified that mail-in ballot reviews were conducted at officials&#8217; homes in 2020 without any observers present. And, shockingly, officials still have the ability to do so now. This revelation could have significant implications for the future of mail-in voting in Arizona and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>The trial was initiated by Republican Kari Lake, who is contesting Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs&#8217; win last November by approximately 17,000 votes. The Arizona Supreme Court remanded the issue of whether the mail-in ballot signature verification process was followed in Maricopa County during the election back to the trial court in March.<\/p>\n<p>During the trial, Lake&#8217;s attorney questioned Valenzuela about the places where mail-in ballot verification took place in November and whether independent observers were present. Valenzuela revealed that there were three locations where mail-in verification took place: Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, the Maricopa County Recorder&#8217;s office, and Maricopa County&#8217;s Southeast Regional Center in Mesa.<\/p>\n<p>Whistleblower Jacqueline Onigkeit, who worked as a ballot reviewer at MCTEC in November, testified that she thought it was &#8220;odd&#8221; when she and her fellow reviewers were sent home at 7 p.m. as counting continued of mail-in ballots. When asked why she thought it was odd, Onigkeit replied, &#8220;Well, because we had observers that were constantly watching what we were doing [at the designated vote-counting area]. But there was, I&#8217;m assuming, no observers there [at the recorder&#8217;s office] who was watching what they were doing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Valenzuela confirmed that observers are allowed in &#8220;any general area,&#8221; but it&#8217;s not a legal requirement. He also explained that as a &#8220;certified election officer,&#8221; he and others can do signature verification in their offices with no observers present.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if signature verification can be done at a Maricopa County employee&#8217;s home, Valenzuela answered, &#8220;We don&#8217;t have that currently in place,&#8221; but during 2020 with the pandemic ongoing, the county allowed reviewers to work from home.<\/p>\n<p>Lake&#8217;s attorney Kurt Olsen argued that the process for verifying voters in Maricopa County is systemically flawed and presented data showing that at least 334,000 mail-in ballots were not verified, far exceeding Hobbs&#8217; 17,000 vote margin of victory.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mail-in ballot reviews were conducted at officials&#8217; homes in 2020 without any observers present.<\/li>\n<li>Whistleblower Jacqueline Onigkeit testified that she thought it was &#8220;odd&#8221; when she and her fellow reviewers were sent home at 7 p.m. as counting continued of mail-in ballots.<\/li>\n<li>Lake&#8217;s attorney Kurt Olsen argued that the process for verifying voters in Maricopa County is systemically flawed and presented data showing that at least 334,000 mail-in ballots were not verified, far exceeding Hobbs&#8217; 17,000 vote margin of victory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The trial continues, and the outcome could have far-reaching consequences. Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.<\/p>\n<p>Randy DeSoto is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book &#8220;We Hold These Truths&#8221; and screenwriter of the political documentary &#8220;I Want Your Money.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reynaldo Valenzuela, Maricopa County Elections Director, testified in the Republican Kari Lake&#8217;s election challenge trial that mail-in ballot reviews were conducted without observers at officials&#8217; homes in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":1933838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Kari Lake Trial: Election Director&#8217;s Surprising Disclosure.","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[9803,9418,3728,8210,8211,13010,4853],"class_list":["post-1933837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily","tag-directors","tag-disclosure","tag-election","tag-kari","tag-lake","tag-surprising","tag-trial"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Kari Lake Trial: Election Director&#8217;s Surprising Disclosure.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1933837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1933838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1933837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1933837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1933837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}