Arizona Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh has joined a lawsuit with the Republican National Committee against Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and a host of Arizona election officials.
Abe Hamadeh filed the lawsuit on Tuesday contesting the preliminary results of the state election, which is heading to an automatic recount. Hamadeh trails his Democratic opponent Kris Mayes by just 510 votes: 1,254,102 for Hamadeh and 1,254,612 for Mayes. The difference is within the 0.5% margin needed to force a recount.
As reported by the New York Times, Hamadeh and the RNC in their complaint are asking the court to “issue an injunction prohibiting the secretary of state from certifying Ms. Hayes as the winner and an order declaring Mr. Hamadeh the winner.”
“The suit argues that equipment failures and errors in the management of polling places and in ballot tabulation led to an incorrect final vote count,” the Times added. “It says there was no ‘fraud, manipulation or other intentional wrongdoing,’ but it claims there were mistakes that affected the final tally, given the contest’s narrow margin.”
Hamadeh on Tuesday night announced the election lawsuit.
Arizonans demand answers and deserve transparency about the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the General Election by certain election officials. I will not stop fighting until ALL voters receive justice.
See you in court. pic.twitter.com/5jJ6WWt8IK
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) November 23, 2022
“Arizonans demand answers and deserve transparency about the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the General Election by certain election officials,” Hamadeh said. “I will not stop fighting until ALL voters receive justice. See you in court.”
The lawsuit makes the following allegations about Maricopa County’s election:
- The Maricopa County Defendants have improperly disqualified provisional ballots and early ballots submitted by individuals who, as a direct and proximate result of poll worker error, were incorrectly designated inelectronic pollbooks as having previously voted in the same election
- The Maricopa County Defendants have improperly and unconstitutionally deprived individuals whose eligibility could not be confirmed of an opportunity to cast a provisional ballot
- The County Defendants have erroneously transposed and improperly tabulated voters indicated candidate selections when duplicating certain ballots that could not be electronically tabulated
- The County Defendants have erroneously determined and improperly tabulated voters indicated candidate selections when adjudicating certain ballots that could not be electronically tabulated
- The County Defendants improperly accepted for processing and tabulation certain early ballots that were accompanied by affidavits presenting a signature that did not match the signature on file in the putative voter’s registration record
Hamadeh also issued a press release detailing the disputed election practices, as reported by Garrett Archer.
Press release from @AbrahamHamadeh summarizing the lawsuit just filed. pic.twitter.com/K3O1Orur66
— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) November 23, 2022
Archer also provided a very interesting breakdown of Maricopa County’s voting issues by Party ID.
Some quick stats on @maricopacounty vote centers.
I = Had printer issues
N = No printer issuesCheck-Ins
I: 79,194 (32%)
N: 168,920 (68%)Party (I)
R: 42,482 (53.6%)
D: 12,237 (15.5%)
O: 24,475 (30.9%)Party (N)
R: 85,421 (50.6%)
D: 30,517 (18.1%)
O: 52,985 (31.4%)— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) November 22, 2022
As can be seen above, Republican voters were disproportionately affected by the printer and tabulation issues. Republicans were more 3% percent more likely and Democrats were 2.6% less likely to have gone to a polling center with voting issues, according to the data. The voting issues impacted 32% of all check-ins. Maricopa County represents more than 60% of registered voters in Arizona.
Liz Harrington revealed a poll of election workers, poll watchers, and volunteer attorneys that suggest 84% are “not at all confident” in the election results.
Wow!
How can you certify an election when literally the people working it have NO confidence the results were honest?
Survey of election workers, poll watchers, and volunteer attorneys reveals CHAOS in Maricopa Countyhttps://t.co/3HW3suRxYu pic.twitter.com/cS1Hh1CzHP
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) November 22, 2022
A new report in the Arizona Sun Times shows that voting issues in Maricopa County were more widespread than originally reported and more heavily impacted Republican-dominant voting areas.
“Voters encountered problems casting their ballots at 70 of the 223 vote centers in Maricopa County on Election Day, November 8, 2022, resulting in long lines and concerns that ballots ended up not tabulated or ‘misread,’ and commingled with ballots that had already been tabulated,” the Sun Times reported. “Averaged together, the problems occurred in areas where Election Day voting was more than 300 percent Republican versus Democrat. Of those 70 precincts affected, 59 were in heavily Republican-voting areas, and two were Republican-leaning but not heavily, with only nine from Democrat-leaning or solidly Democrat areas.”
Misread ballot percentages by voting locations are detailed below:
Misread Polling Locations GOP/Dem in Maricopa County 2022 Election by Kyle Becker on Scribd
Six counties are now suspending its certification of Arizona’s state election, as reported by Archer.
Of Arizona’s 15 counties, six have yet to certify the general election canvass. All six are currently scheduled to take up the canvass on Monday, 11/28.
Mohave
Coconino
Navajo
Yavapai
Maricopa
Cochise— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) November 22, 2022
“Of Arizona’s 15 counties, six have yet to certify the general election canvass,” Archer reported. “All six are currently scheduled to take up the canvass on Monday, 11/28. Mohave, Coconino, Navajo, Yavapai, Maricopa, and Cochise.
Arizona Governor’s candidate Kari Lake, who trails by approximately one percent in her race against Katie Hobbs, recently pointed to a letter from the Office of the Attorney General to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office as further evidence that she “will become governor.”
Lake told The Daily Mail on Saturday that she still believes she will become governor of Arizona.
“The way they run elections in Maricopa County is worse than in banana republics around this world,” she said in an exclusive interview, referring to Maricopa County.
“And I’ll tell you what, I believe at the end of the day that this will be turned around and I don’t know what the solution will be but I still believe I will become governor, and we are going to restore honesty to our elections,” she added.
In another interview, Lake touted her legal team and said what happened in the Arizona election is “unforgiveable.”
“Rest assured I have assembled the best and brightest legal team, and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week,” Lake said in a video Thursday. “I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs.”
“What happened to Arizonans on Election Day is unforgivable,” she said.
The Arizona election lawsuit accompanies another lengthy delay to the state’s certification process, following upon the contested 2020 presidential election.
NOW READ:
The Arizona Voting Machines Disaster in Maricopa County is Even Worse Than We Thought
The post Arizona GOP Sues Katie Hobbs Over State’s Botched Election, Now 6 Counties Will Suspend Its Certification of Results appeared first on Becker News.