Attorney General Kris Mayes asked the Arizona Supreme Court to refuse Abe Hamadeh’s request for a new trial for his election lawsuit contesting his purported loss and asked the court to force Hamadeh to pay Mayes’ legal fees.
Lawyers for Mayes (pictured above, right) argued that Hamadeh’s team could have worked to expedite his legal cases, has not asked the current judge for a final decision, and once acknowledged it did not have enough evidence to overthrow the election.
Mayes’ lawyers alleged that Hamadeh’s request merits no urgency because Mayes took office “over seven months ago,” according to The Daily Independent, which also reported that Mayes is asking the court to force Hamadeh (pictured above, left) to pay Mayes’ legal fees for the latest challenge.
Hamadeh and his allies requested the new trial last week, citing new evidence of undervotes allegedly withheld by then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and claiming up to 76,339 undervotes were not counted in the 2022 elections.
At the time, Hamadeh told The Arizona Sun Times that his “evidence cannot be ignored” and cited “thousands of uncounted ballots.” He described previous actions by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen as “unusual roadblocks.” He said he is “confident we will have our day in court to present the evidence and ensure the will of the people is honored.”
Explaining these roadblocks, Hamadeh’s petition claims Janzten’s court saw “unexplainable and unnecessary delays on an issue of extreme statewide importance justify Petitioners’ request to seek extraordinary relief from this Court directly via special action.”
Hamadeh’s team also criticized Jantzen’s decision to refuse a new trial for the Republican, alleging that “nearly every paragraph of the trial court’s order contains legal errors and makes factual findings not supported by the record” in his petition.
“[D]ue to a lack of procedural clarity in election contests, the trial court denied Petitioners’ Motion,” they wrote in the petition. “Without relief from this Court, this case could linger for another nine months even though the stakes could not be higher.”
Should a final resolution to Hamadeh’s case be reached according to his timetable, the election battle would ultimately conclude in May 2024, nearly two years after Election Day.
In their filing, Hamadeh and his team also noted that lawyers were only allowed to examine 2,300 ballots of the more than 2.5 million cast in 2022, and the “misread rate” of those votes was 0.61 percent, which the lawyers noted “is more than 60 times the 0.01% margin of victory.” Since the election, Mayes’ lead over Hamadeh has shrunk to only 280 votes, making it the closest statewide race in Arizona history.
The Arizona Supreme Court has not said when they will consider Hamadeh’s request. Should the court refuse Hamadeh’s request for a new trial, the Republican can still challenge Jantzen’s eventual ruling through the normal appeals process.
Hamadeh continues to contest the 2022 elections alongside former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
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Tom Pappert is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Tom on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kris Mayes” by Kris Mayes. Photo “Abe Hamadeh” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 3.0.
