PHOENIX — Unsuccessful in trying to overturn his election loss for attorney general, Republican Abe Hamadeh has opened up a new legal front with a different tactic.
He now wants a judge to order that the race he lost to Democrat Kris Mayes a year ago be re-run in Maricopa County.
This is based on Hamadeh’s contention Maricopa County officials botched how they handled 2022 Election Day procedures.
Problems with printers and tabulators at vote centers resulted in long lines, said an attorney for Hamadeh, Ryan Heath.
He claims that as many as 20% of potential voters were unable to cast their ballots, though he provides no basis for that estimate other than a handful of affidavits from people who say they eventually walked away.
The only way to resolve that, Heath says, is to re-do the election and to follow laws and procedures that would have prevented the problems at polling places.
“If the voters desire to have Kris Mayes represent Arizona as the attorney general, then a re-vote in Maricopa County will not change that result,’’ he told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian. “Yet if the will of the voters was thwarted by Maricopa County’s well-publicized failures on Election Day, then that also will be clear with the issuance of the writ requested.’’
The new lawsuit comes even as Hamadeh is waging a parallel challenge to his loss, asking the state Court of Appeals to order Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen to grant him a new trial in his unsuccessful effort to overturn the election results.
Hamadeh contends Jantzen acted improperly at the first trial by limiting the amount of time the 2022 Republican candidate’s attorneys had to find evidence they contend will show some people legally entitled to vote did not have their ballots counted.
But in a new filing this week, an attorney for Mayes, Alexis Danneman, told the appellate judges there is no basis for giving Hamadeh a new trial and more time to unearth evidence to support his theory he outpolled Mayes despite the official results showing her defeating him by 280 votes.
She is asking the appellate court to dismiss the case and also force Hamadeh to pay Mayes’ legal fees and costs.
A spokesman for the Maricopa County supervisors, who are in charge of handling Election Day voting, said they do not comment on ongoing litigation.
