Democratic attorney Marc Elias reports that the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the Republican National Committee in an election-related matter.
This decision comes after Abe Hamadeh, a state GOP candidate for attorney general, requested that the court reverse his loss and call for a new election after all other avenues had been exhausted. Hamadeh lost to Democrat Kris Mayes by just 280 votes.
The ramifications of this ruling are yet unclear, but it will undoubtedly have a significant impact on Arizona’s Republican and Democratic parties.
Judge Lee Jantzen of Mohave County Superior Court denied a lawsuit filed by Hamedeh in July, claiming that modifications to Service Arizona and the Arizona Voter Information Database resulted in over 500 “uncounted votes in Pinal County” and up to 1,000 provisional ballots being rejected.
Hamedeh chose to proceed with his case directly to the Arizona Supreme Court in spite of this denial, where his claims were again dismissed.
According to Raw Story, the Supreme Court ruling stated, “We find that the special action unnecessarily expanded the proceeding and compelled Respondents to incur the unnecessary expense of filing their court-ordered response because Petitioners were not only aware that they needed a final judgement to seek appellate relief, but they also misrepresented to this Court that they had sought such relief when they had not done so. This representation was the underlying premise upon which this petition was brought.”
Hamadeh filed his lawsuit in the autumn of last year. At the time, The Western Journal reported:
Going forward, the counts present a devastating picture of dishonesty and ineptitude that might readily be used to drastically change a 511-vote victory.
The first count of the election challenge specifically targets Maricopa County and alleges “erroneous count of votes and election board misconduct; wrongful disqualification of provisional and early ballots.” The second count also specifically targets Maricopa County and similarly alleges “erroneous count of votes and election board misconduct; wrongful exclusion of provisional voters.”
The third count, which targets multiple election officials — including Mayes and Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs — alleges “erroneous count of votes: inaccurate ballot duplications.” The final count moving forward alleges “illegal votes and erroneous count of votes: improper ballot adjudications.”
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs faced significant backlash last week when she voiced her opinion that there had not yet been sufficient charges brought against former President Donald Trump.