Ex-Arizona attorney general GOP candidate Abe Hamadeh demands new trial over 2022 election loss
Ryan King
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Former Arizona Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh is demanding there be a new trial for his 2022 election loss challenge that was thrown out by a judge late last year.
Pointing to “newly discovered evidence” about tabulation errors in Pinal County, Hamadeh’s legal team argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that a new trial was warranted because the judge who tossed out his case did not evaluate the new revelations of discrepancies in the county. He lost to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who was sworn in Monday, by about 280 votes.
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“This information that was not available to this Court at the time of trial,” Hamadeh’s attorneys argued in a statement. “The recount results identified significant, material discrepancies that cast doubt upon the completeness and accuracy of the election results.”
Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen tossed out Hamadeh’s initial lawsuit over the election on Dec. 23, arguing he didn’t meet the burden of proof. A recount that was recently unsealed to the public narrowed Mayes’s victory over Hamadeh from 511 to 280 votes. The discrepancy uncovered during the recount was largely attributed to tabulation errors in Pinal County.
“At least some Defendants, including the Secretary of State, knew about these material discrepancies no later than December 21 — eight days before she made the results available to Contestants and the public. Yet, they were not made known to the public until after this matter was tried,” Hamadeh’s attorneys further explained.
Pinal County argued that the undercount was caused by “human error” and argued its accuracy was within the bounds of Arizona state law.
“The recount demonstrated that Pinal County exhibited an election consistency rate of 99.65%. Although not perfect, this consistency rate is within the State’s predetermined .5% statutory margin,” the county said in a statement.
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If Hamadeh is to succeed in his lawsuit to challenge the election results, he must prove that he would have won the race if election officials counted the results properly. The new suit was filed in the Superior Court for the State of Arizona in the County of Mohave.
Other top Republicans in Arizona have lodged similar election challenges, most notably gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake, whose suit to overturn the election had also been dismissed late last year. Lake recently filed an appeal to that dismissal. Her rival, Katie Hobbs, was recently sworn in as governor.