Trump-endorsed election denier candidate for Attorney General, Abe Hamadeh, lost to his Democratic opponent Kris Mayes by a mere 510 votes (it should never have been this close). There will be a statutorily mandated automatic recount of the race in December. The race, therefore, has not been certified as final.

Nevertheless this “wet behind the ears” young punk MAGA/QAnon election denier has filed a premature election contest, proving that he is too inexperienced and incompetent to be Attorney General. Hell, I question his competence to even practice law.

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The Arizona Mirror reports, Abe Hamadeh files lawsuit challenging election results, citing Maricopa County problems:

Abe Hamadeh, the Republican nominee for attorney general, filed a lawsuit late Tuesday alleging that Maricopa County officials bungled Election Day so severely that it cost him a victory in the race, which he lost by just 510 votes. 

“Arizonans demand answers and deserve transparency about the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the General Election by certain election officials,” Hamadeh said in a tweet about the suit. “I will not stop fighting until ALL voters receive justice. See you in court.”

An automatic recount of the race had already been triggered due to the narrow margins, the final count left both candidates with 50% of the votes. Democrat Kris Mayes received 1,254,612 and Hamadeh 1,254,102 according to unofficial tallies. Most Arizona counties have already certified their election results, and the remainder — including Maricopa — must do so by Nov. 28.

Hamadeh was joined by the Republican National Committee in filing the lawsuit [RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel had to approve it]. The legal challenge says that the plaintiffs are not alleging any “fraud, manipulation or any other intentional wrongdoing that would impugn the outcomes of the November 8, 2022 general election.”

At the heart of the lawsuit are claims that “errors and inaccuracies in the management of some polling operations” as well as in the “tabulation of some ballots” has caused the “unlawful denial of the franchise to certain qualified electors, erroneously tallied certain ballots, and included for tabulation in the canvass certain illegal votes in connection with the election for the office of Arizona Attorney General.”

The lawsuit asks the court to make Maricopa County process and tabulate all provisional ballots it received from 146 people who checked into a voting center but left without having a ballot counted on-site or deposited in a secure box for tabulation later and were not checked out by a poll worker. Those voters went to another Election Day voting site, but were forced to cast a provisional ballot because the election system showed they had already voted.

Hamadeh is also seeking an injunction against Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is now governor-elect after defeating Kari Lake in the election, from certifying Mayes’ win in the attorney general contest.

Among the other claims made in the lawsuit is that bipartisan adjudication boards did not correctly duplicate ballots that were damaged or unreadable by ballot tabulators, although the lawsuit gives no evidence for the claim. Likewise, a claim that counties allowed for “illegal” votes by improperly adjudicating ballots was not backed up with specific evidence.

Note that the complaint is 65 pages in length, but contains no particularized evidence in support of its allegations.

But Tom Ryan, a Valley attorney and critic of Hamadeh’s, said the would-be attorney general’s lawsuit is likely dead on arrival because state law is specific about when legal challenges to election results can be filed. Hamadeh is making his case in court before all of the counties have canvassed their results and the state has certified the election, while Arizona statute says such lawsuits can only be filed after the results have been certified Ryan noted on Twitter.

16-673. Statement of contest; verification; filing

A. The elector contesting a state election shall, within five days after completion of the canvass of the election and declaration of the result thereof by the secretary of state or by the governor, file in the court in which the contest is commenced a statement in writing setting forth:

1. The name and residence of the party contesting the election, and that he is an elector of the state and county in which he resides.

2. The name of the person whose right to the office is contested, or the title of the measure, or constitutional amendment, or other proposition as it appeared upon the official ballot.

3. The office the election to which is contested.

4. The particular grounds of the contest.

B. The statement shall be verified by the affidavit of the contestor that he believes the matters and things therein contained are true.

“This is just performative litigation for consumption by the uninformed masses [Fox Nation],” Ryan told the Arizona Mirror.

Hamadeh and the RNC are represented by Republican election [denier] attorneys Kory Langhofer and Timothy La Sota. Langhofer this month represented GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters in a failed bid to keep polling places open past 7 p.m. La Sota represented the Lake campaign and previously was an attorney for the Arizona Republican Party.

They were also among the GQP attorneys who filed the bogus election challenges in 2020, every case dismissed by the courts for lack of any credible evidence.

A date for the first hearing on the case has not been set, but Hamadeh and the RNC are requesting an expedited hearing.

It also isn’t the only legal challenge facing Maricopa County’s election results that dropped Tuesday evening.

Outgoing state Senate Government Committee Chair [QAnon Queen and election denier] Kelly Townsend, R-Apache Junction, subpoenaed the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors requesting records relating to the election, specifically about the printers that created havoc at about 30% of vote centers.

Townsend gave the board of supervisors until Nov. 28 at 9:30 a.m. to respond.

Can we finally rid ourselves of this crazy woman who is not returning to the legislature? Enough already!




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