Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer launched a taxpayer-funded ad campaign about voting featuring himself earlier this month.
The ads discuss the county’s voter dashboard, beballotready.vote, and assert that his office will clean up voter rolls. The ads were placed on broadcast TV, radio, and YouTube — including during conservative podcasts — Facebook, X, Instagram, and Reddit.
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Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed a defamation lawsuit in June against Kari Lake on June 22 over her statements alleging election fraud in Maricopa County, and now ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law First Amendment Clinic is joining Lake in her defense. The clinic co-authored a motion to dismiss with Lake’s attorneys, which was filed on August 21.
Jennifer Wright, one of Lake’s attorneys who previously served as the Election Integrity Unit civil attorney for the Attorney General’s Office, said in a statement provided to The Arizona Sun Times, “In 2022, the legislature strengthened laws protecting the rights of citizens to speak freely on matters of public concern. Richer’s lawsuit is precisely the kind of abuse of the legal system the law was designed to stop. I have every confidence the court will agree, and dismiss the lawsuit.”
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Abe Hamadeh is forging ahead, challenging his 280-vote loss to Democrat Kris Mayes in the attorney general’s race, the closest statewide race in Arizona’s history. He is in the midst of challenging the trial court’s refusal to grant him a new trial after discovering that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs withheld evidence from him prior to his trial regarding undervotes, votes that were not counted that resulted in narrowing Mayes’ lead. On Wednesday, he filed a reply to Mayes’ objections simultaneously with two amicus curiae briefs in support; one from Arizona legislative leadership and one from the America First Legal Foundation.
Hamadeh’s reply brief, primarily authored by Jennifer Wright, who previously served as the Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit civil attorney, pointed out various contradictions in Mayes’ response. Mayes claimed that Hamadeh was “both too fast and too slow in attempting to obtain relief in this Court,” the brief stated. On the one hand, Mayes claimed that Hamadeh was causing “unreasonable delay,” yet she still asked for a regular appeals process, not a speedy one.
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Abe Hamadeh filed a Petition for Special Action with the Arizona Supreme Court on Friday asking the court to consider providing him with a new trial in his election lawsuit contesting losing the attorney general’s race. Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee F. Jantzen denied Abe Hamadeh’s request for a new trial in July, despite the fact Hamadeh discovered that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs withheld evidence of undervotes in Pinal County, which led to Kris Mayes’ lead shrinking to only 280 votes over Hamadeh, making it the closest statewide race in Arizona history. Hamadeh believes up to 76,339 “undervotes” statewide were not counted in the election.
Hamadeh said in a statement provided to The Arizona Sun Times, “I stand by my commitment to keep fighting for the people of Arizona and protect their sacred right to vote. As a veteran, I took an oath to serve our country overseas, and I will continue to serve Arizona and our country. The evidence cannot be ignored — there are thousands of uncounted ballots. Although we have faced unusual roadblocks at the trial court, we are confident we will have our day in court to present the evidence and ensure that the will of the people is honored.”
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Amy Love, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ chief of staff, resigned on Monday, just six months into Mayes’ term. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs’ first six months have been full of even more turmoil, with multiple high-level staffers leaving within the first six months.
Mayes titled the press release announcing Love’s resignation, “Attorney General Mayes Announces Leadership Change.” It stated briefly, “Attorney General Kris Mayes today announced the resignation of Chief of Staff Amy Love. Ms. Love’s final day with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office will be August 7, 2023. Amy Love is an exceptional public servant, and I thank her for her service to the Attorney General’s Office and the State of Arizona,” said Attorney General Mayes. “I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.”
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Jennifer Wright, who served as the Election Integrity Unit (EIU) civil attorney under Attorney General Mark Brnovich, started the process this past week to sue current Attorney General Kris Mayes for defamation by filing a Notice of Claim. Someone from Mayes’ office told the media that Wright was fired or forced to resign, but Wright has produced evidence showing she resigned voluntarily. It is common when a new administration from a different political party takes over an office to fire high-level appointees from the previous administration.
“Over the past few years, I’ve become jaded by people in positions of power abusing that power for partisan gain & further subjugation of the American people,” Wright tweeted. “On 1/5/23 I was shocked when an outright lie was propagated by Arizona’s Chief Legal Officer, @krismayes, about me.”
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Democratic Arizona Secretary of State (AZSOS) Adrian Fontes started sending proposed draft revisions of parts of the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM) to county recorders around the state.
Jennifer Wright, who served as the Election Integrity Unit civil attorney under former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, where she was extensively involved in reviewing then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ proposed changes to the EPM, said she believes several of the first round of proposed changes would violate the law.
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A bill that has been making its way through the Arizona Legislature would make it easier for the public to obtain the Cast Vote Record (CVR), which is the electronic representation of how voters voted, but some election integrity proponents are concerned that after an amendment by State Representative Alex Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) was removed in Conference Committee, a loophole allows counties to accept early ballots without verifying the signatures. SB 1518, sponsored by State Senator Ken Bennett (R-Prescott), passed the Senate 17-11 on Tuesday, with a handful of conservative stalwarts joining Democrats to oppose it, but failed in the House 24-32 due to opposition from the House’s Arizona Freedom Caucus.
Jennifer Wright, former Election Integrity Unit civil attorney under previous Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is currently representing Abe Hamadeh in his election challenge for Attorney General, tweeted her praise at the legislators who voted against the bill. “Thank you @RJ4arizona, @realAlexKolodin, and others for stopping SB1518 that contained language codifying procedures revealed in @KariLake’s trial that Maricopa used to permit ballots from early vote centers to forgo signature verification,” she said.
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After being ordered by the Arizona Supreme Court to reconsider the issue of signature verification in Kari Lake’s election contest, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson decided after a hearing that he would allow a full trial. He declined to allow reconsideration of the faulty ballot-on-demand printer configurations, however, which resulted in mostly Republicans having problems casting ballots on Election Day. The trial began on Wednesday, with Lake’s attorneys emphasizing how the signature verification of voters’ signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes was conducted so quickly it was impossible to adequately verify them.
Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen accused the county of falsely verifying signatures. “Maricopa’s log file data shows that 11 of these signature verification workers approved 170,000 signatures at a rate of between 0 and 2.99 seconds with a 99.97 percent approval rating,” he said. “That’s not signature review, your Honor.” Olsen said due to this, at least 334,000 mail-in ballots were not verified.
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Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk weighed in on Abe Hamadeh’s election challenge Monday. Hamadeh is challenging election anomalies in the closest statewide race in history, the Arizona Attorney General’s race which he lost to Democrat Kris Mayes by 280 votes. Musk was responding to a tweet from Hamadeh about the large numbers of people who voted on Election Day last fall whose votes were not counted, and his response generated a flood of responses.
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There’s a lot of chatter on social media about recalling Katie Hobbs from the Arizona Governor’s Office since many believe she won due to election fraud. Some groups are raising money to fund an organized recall effort.
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Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen scheduled oral arguments for May 16 on whether Abe Hamadeh should get a new trial.
Jantzen dismissed his complaint challenging his loss to Kris Mayes for Arizona Attorney General in December. Jantzen’s ruling came shortly after Hamadeh filed an additional pleading to bolster his request, which accused then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of withholding evidence from him and cited new arguments due to the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling in Kari Lake’s election contest.
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Maricopa County officials tapped former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor to investigate the printing problems in the 2022 election, and on Monday, the county released her report blaming the thickness of the ballot paper. Jennifer Wright, who was the Election Integrity Unit civil attorney for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office during the election and who performed her own investigation of Maricopa County’s election problems going back to the 2020 presidential election, told The Arizona Sun Times the report was “meaningless” since it did not include an analysis of the printer logs.
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New Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes issued a press release last month criticizing her predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, for disagreeing with two of his employees on whether there was election fraud in the 2020 midterm election. As a result of her press release, 17 people filed bar complaints against him, including Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Jennifer Wright, who served as the Arizona Attorney General Office’s (AGO) Election Integrity Unit (EIU) civil attorney, denounced Mayes for the move, and is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to look into whether Mayes violated ethics rules by releasing attorney-client privileged work to the public.
In a March 13 letter addressed to Justice Bill Montgomery as the chair of the Arizona Supreme Court’s Task Force on Ethics Rules Governing the State Attorney General, County Attorneys, and Other Public Lawyers, Wright referenced Mayes’ position on the task force, and said, “I encourage the Task Force to inquire as to what Rule of Professional Conduct Ms. Mayes relied upon to justify waiving her predecessor’s attorney-client privilege and publicly releasing privileged materials.”
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Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Cochise County Supervisors for delegating election duties to Cochise County Recorder David Stevens, an election integrity proponent. However, from the 1950s to 2019, Maricopa County had an agreement with its county recorder to oversee elections. Three other counties delegate those responsibilities to their recorders as well.
Jennifer Wright, who served as the Election Integrity Unit’s civil attorney under previous Attorney General Mark Brnovich, tweeted, “So, will @krismayes also be suing @maricopacounty for their MOU delegating BOS responsibilities to the CR? Anyone remember when Fontes was stripped of BOS delegated responsibilities, the press lamented how elections were 100% the CR’s job? Oh, the hypocrisy. #AbuseOfPower”
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Republican Abe Hamadeh shared Thursday that Maricopa County had allegedly delayed his team’s efforts to inspect the County’s adjudication log from the 2022 election following a public records request.
“Maricopa County told my team that they were available for inspections this week. After we arrived yesterday morning the County kicked us out after just one hour. Maricopa County continues to obstruct and conceal – my team is prepared for litigation,” tweeted Hamadeh.
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Republican Abe Hamadeh is continuing his attempt at a new trial in his election challenge, alleging he was denied due process during his first court appearance.
“Judges, not executive branch nor election officials, are the arbiters of justice. After all, if this — the closest statewide office election in Arizona history — is not worth an exacting review, whatever could be,” Hamadeh tweeted. “Without honest and transparent elections, nothing else matters.”
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The former Election Integrity Unit civil attorney for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is making it clear she does not believe the new Attorney General is rightfully in office. Jennifer Wright, who resigned before Democrat Kris Mayes took office — but who Mayes’ office claimed was fired to journalists, causing Wright to start the process for a libel lawsuit — has joined the legal team of Mayes’ opponent, Republican Abe Hamadeh, who is challenging the results of the extremely close election.
Wright tweeted that she initially turned down Hamadeh’s offer, but changed her mind “after @krismayes targeted me by falsely and unlawfully planting a hit on me on @azcentral.” She said “it became clear that left unchecked, the new admin intended to abuse their power.”
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Jennifer Wright, the Election Integrity Unit (EIU) civil attorney for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich until his second term ended earlier this month, resigned before newly elected Democrat Kris Mayes took office, but there are reports in the media spreading that she was fired. Wright gave The Arizona Republic “notice and demand for a correction prior to filing legal action pursuant to A.R.S. 12-653.2.”
Wright believes the false statements were made in order to discredit the work she did investigating voter fraud.
Wright tangled with the Maricopa County Supervisors and Maricopa County Stephen Richer many times, pointing out problems with the elections and demanding evidence and documentation. She asked the county four times to turn over information related to the Arizona Senate’s independent ballot audit of the 2020 election, but all four letters were ignored.
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Maricopa County officials held a press conference and issued a response Wednesday to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s first Interim Report on the 2020 Maricopa County independent ballot audit, prompting a sharp reaction from Brnovich. He said in a letter to supporters, “[T]he Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and County Recorder continue to throw stones at Attorney General Brnovich instead of working to address the serious issues identified in the interim report.” Jen Wright, head of his Elections Integrity Unit, who has lengthy experience investigating voter fraud for the Arizona Republican Party, sent a response back to their attorney with “serious concerns.”
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In response to the report released last week about the Maricopa County ballot audit, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s Election Integrity Unit sent a letter to Maricopa County instructing the recorder and supervisors to preserve all records related to the 2020 election in preparation for litigation. He also sent a letter to the Arizona Senate requesting more information related to the audit.
“The Arizona Senate’s report that was released on Friday raises some serious questions regarding the 2020 election,” Brnovich said in a statement about the letters. “Arizonans can be assured our office will conduct a thorough review of the information we receive.”
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