A witness in the Kari Lake trial began crying while on the stand as the former GOP candidate for governor made her last remaining arguments in her lawsuit contesting the results of Arizona's 2022 election.
On Wednesday, the trial over the only remaining claim from Lake's election lawsuit—that election officials in Maricopa County failed to perform higher-level signature verification on ballots that had been flagged by lower-level screenings—began.
After identifying herself as a former election worker in Maricopa County, Jacqueline Onigkeit was asked by the judge why she wanted to get involved in the county's election process to begin with.
"I'm doing this for my children. I have five children and nine grandchildren and I want their vote to count," Onigkeit said as she started to cry. Onigkeit, whom Lake described as a "whistleblower" on Twitter, continued to testify between sobs, saying she worked in both the 2020 elections and the 2022 midterms. When the judge asked if she was OK, she apologized for crying.
Before her testimony began, Onigkeit said she is a registered Republican but had voted for former President Barack Obama.
More than four months after Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs took office, Lake is still challenging Hobbs' victory. Lake lost by more than 17,000 votes in last November's midterm race.
Newsweek reached out to Hobbs via email for comment.
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