Arizona Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh filed a lawsuit contesting election results that show him down ahead of an automatic recount, The New York Times reports.
With all votes counted, the state’s final tally shows Democratic candidate Kris Mayes leading Hamadeh by 510 votes: 1,254,612 to 1,254,102.
The difference is well within the threshold to trigger an automatic recount under state law.
Hamadeh, who embraced former President Donald Trump false election claims, is one of multiple Trump-backed election deniers to lose the formerly reliable red state, including gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Senate candidate Blake Masters, and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem.
Lake and Finchem both refuse to accept their losses while Masters conceded his defeat.
Lawsuit:
Hamadeh filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and the county recorders and boards of supervisors in the state’s 15 counties.
The Republican National Committee joined the lawsuit as well.
The lawsuit asked the court to issue an injunction blocking the state from certifying Mayes’ win and issue an order declaring Hamadeh the winner.
The lawsuit argues that voting machine problems led to an incorrect vote count.
The lawsuit says there was no “fraud, manipulation or other intentional wrongdoing” but says mistakes affected the final result.
The suit asks for 146 provision ballots and 273 mail-in ballots that were separated because they came from votes who already cast an in-person ballot to be counted and says he should be declared the winner.
Hamadeh claims “disenfranchisement”:
“The voters of Arizona demand answers and deserve transparency about the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the General Election by certain election officials. Pervasive errors by our election officials resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless Arizonans who had their voices silenced. Arizonans deserve to have an election system that is transparent and fair and right now we have neither,” Hamadeh said in a statement.
"Today’s challenge is the only way to provide accountability and restore confidence in our broken election system,” he added.
