Judge Dismisses Arizona Republican AG Candidate Abe Hamadeh’s Election Challenge Lawsuit

Arizona attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh at the Cochise County Sheriffs Office in Sierra Vista, Ariz., on Nov. 4, 2022. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

An Arizona judge on Dec. 23 dismissed an election challenge lawsuit from Abe Hamadeh, the Republican candidate in the state’s attorney general race.

Hamadeh, the Republican National Committee (RNC), and two Arizona voters had filed an election contest lawsuit on Dec. 9 against Democrat AG candidate Kris Mayes, well as Katie Hobbs in her role as Arizona secretary of state, and other top state election officials.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee F. Jantzen concluded that Hamadeh had not proven the case, which had argued (pdf) that the totality of “certain errors and inaccuracies in the management of some polling operations” had impacted the outcome of the Nov. 8 election.

Jantzen on Dec. 20 allowed (pdf) four of the five filed counts alleged in the election contest lawsuit to move forward, granting the plaintiffs’ request to provide more evidence of the case, the merits of which were argued at an evidentiary hearing on Dec. 23.

But the judge on Dec. 23 ruled in favor of the defendants, telling the plaintiffs they haven’t brought any more compelling “elements to the case.”

“The bottom line is you just haven’t proven your case. You haven’t met the burden. The mistakes that may have been made were not enough to overcome the presumption the court has to have in election cases,” Jantzen said, per The Hill, adding, “It just doesn’t overcome the presumption that the election was done correctly.”

Under Arizona law, Hamadeh and fellow plaintiffs in the election contest lawsuit faced the high bar of proving not just that election officials erred but that he would have won without their misconduct.

Not Enough Votes Gained During Litigation

Jantzen’s ruling from the bench came after Hamadeh’s attorney, Tim La Sota, acknowledged his client hadn’t gained enough votes during the course of the lawsuit to change the outcome of the race. Democrat candidate Kris Mayes had defeated Hamadeh by a margin of 511 votes out of 2.5 million votes cast, making it one of the closest contests in state history.

As part of the lawsuit, the parties in the case were allowed to inspect a sample of 2,300 ballots. Through the inspection, Hamadeh said he gained a net six votes, while Mayes asserted she gained three votes.

“If you extrapolate the numbers, they are not going to get us to 511 votes if you take the sample we have,” said La Sota, who had pushed for a larger sample size.

Hamadeh commented on Twitter: “Based on the constraints imposed on us by the court and the obstruction by the opposing side, we were only given 6 hours with 3 people to attempt to go through 2.5 million ballots.”

Recount Automatically Triggered

The lawsuit’s dismissal does not mean Hamadeh has lost the election. Per Arizona law, because the margin of the attorney general race was within 0.5 points, it went to an automatic recount, which began on Dec. 7. The results are set to be announced on Dec. 29.

Hamadeh announced that his team will wait for the results of the recount before they decide what to do next.

“There are thousands of uncounted provisionals ballots. Thousands of voters were disenfranchised. Election Day in Maricopa County was a disaster,” he wrote. “Election officials failed democracy. My team will await the results of the recount before deciding our next steps.”

The counts that Jantzen allowed to move forward in the lawsuit on Dec. 20 involved allegations that the race was affected by ballots that were inaccurately duplicated and improperly adjudicated, as well as unverified early ballots, which are illegal.

Other counts allowed to move forward were allegations directed against Maricopa County, the largest county in the state: that provisional and early ballots were wrongfully disqualified, and that provisional voters were wrongfully excluded.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.