Republican candidate for attorney general, Abe Hamadeh, filed a lawsuit asking a judge not only to block the certification of the November 8 election results, but also to certify Hamadeh’s election.
The complaint was filed Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court by Hamadeh, who was joined by the Republican National Committee.
Contestants include the candidate now leading the race for attorney general, Democrat Kris Mayes, as well as Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbes and other election officials.
Hamadeh trails Mayes by 510 votes with all Arizona ballots counted. The race is already headed for an automatic recount, under state law, because the difference in votes between the candidates is less than 0.05 of a percentage point. The recount will occur after the certification of the electoral results on December 5.
Hamadeh is asking the court to prevent the certification of the attorney general’s career as it stands now. He requests “an injunctive relief…prohibiting the Secretary of State from declaring Respondent elected to the office of Arizona Attorney General or from issuing Respondent a certificate of election.”
He also asked the court to force the Secretary of State to certify the election results in his favor.
“A court order…requiring the Secretary of State to declare Contestant Abraham Hamadeh elected to the office of Arizona Attorney General and issue him a certificate of election.”
In a press release, Hamadeh said: “Arizona voters demand answers and deserve transparency about the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the General Election by certain election officials. Widespread mistakes by our election officials resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless Arizonans whose voices were silenced. Arizonans deserve to have an electoral system that is transparent and fair and right now we have neither.
“Today’s challenge is the only way to provide accountability and restore trust in our broken electoral system.”
Mayes’ campaign declined to comment, saying officials had not yet seen the lawsuit. Maricopa County officials declined to comment.
Hamadeh’s complaint alleges that various errors occurred during the 2022 election so that the result did not reflect the intent of Arizona voters. He alleges inaccurate vote counts, the will of the voter not adequately reflected due to defective or damaged ballots, and the inclusion of early ballots in the final vote count whose affidavit signatures were different from those on file.
The complaint comes days after a letter from a unit of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. asking Maricopa County for a formal response to the issues that arose on Election Day.
Much of the fuss regarding the wrong vote totals centers on Maricopa County’s problems. It alleges that poll workers screened voters without knowing how to do it correctly. Tabulating machines at some polling places were unable to read some of the ballots because the ink used was too light, resulting in long lines at some polling places and encouraging some people to vote elsewhere.
The problem was compounded when Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates encouraged voters to go elsewhere, the complaint alleges, disenfranchising voters who were unable to vote due to confusion about their immigration status. Registration.
County Officials on Election Day recognized the confusion that resulted when printer settings and low ink levels prevented tabulators from accepting ballots to count at 30% of the county’s vote centers. But they did describe various safeguards in place to allow for the counting of ballots by voters who went to a second polling place and voted a provisional ballot.
Hamadeh’s complaint alleges that “at least 146 voters” had provisional ballots invalidated at a second location because they had not been properly verified at their first location. He also says that “at least 273 voters” who went to a second location to cast their ballots were disenfranchised because they were still registered at the initial polling place. The complaint also claims that a “material number of voters” were unable to cast provisional ballots at another polling place because they were still registered at their first polling place.
This article originally appeared on the Arizona Republic: Abe Hamadeh challenges AG race results and asks judge to declare him the winner