Republican Arizona candidate Abe Hamadeh filed a new motion with the Republican National Committee in Mohave County to again challenge the Nov. 8 election results in the attorney general’s race and claimed there is new evidence of voter disenfranchisements after hundreds of ballots were located in Pinal County.
Hamadeh, who was backed by President Donald Trump and is an ally of GOP candidate Kari Lake, released a statement Wednesday saying they are filing the lawsuit “as a result of newly discovered evidence that voters were clearly disenfranchised.”
The motion stated that “the vote count totals are likely inaccurate with thousands of Arizonans’ votes not counted, thus casting further doubt about the actual result.” Information that was presented in the motion was not available during the trial last month, where the judge ultimately tossed his election challenge.
Following the statewide automatic recount, Mayes’ advantage over Hamadeh shrunk by about 230 votes—from more than 500 to about 280—over Hamadeh. Earlier this week, Mayes, a Democrat, was sworn-in as attorney general, replacing former GOP Attorney General Mark Brnovich, during a ceremony in Phoenix.
“The statewide automatic recount was primarily conducted by machine. However, during the course of this recount at least one county, Pinal, was conducting a parallel audit of its own elections processes which discovered discrepancies significant in the context of this race,” Hamadeh’s motion stated. It then cited the Pinal County election director as publicly saying that one factor underlying this disparity is that the canvass was filed prior to taking an adequate opportunity to investigate any possible anomalies we could discern from polling place returns.
“In other words, given more time, new evidence, and the physical inspection of ballots—the results changed,” it argued. After a “partial” investigation into the matter, Hamadeh gained 277 votes, his lawyers further contended.
A judge had tossed Hamadeh’s previous lawsuit about two weeks ago. The suit had alleged errors in Maricopa County voting systems, which were announced by top officials on Nov. 8, may have cost him the election.
In December, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen allowed Hamadeh’s case to move to trial, allowing four out of five counts to be heard. However, during the trial, Jantzen stated that “elements of the case” weren’t proven.
Human Error
During a public hearing on Wednesday, Pinal County attorney Kent Volkmer said that there were human errors that led to a discrepancy of about 500 votes between canvassed votes and recounted ones.But Volkmer said he’s confident the recounted totals are correct.
“It took us a second try,” he said. “And a third try, quite frankly, with the day-of ballots. We have very thoroughly examined why this happened. And we’re taking every step we can to ensure that it does not happen again.”
The Epoch Times has contacted Mayes’ office for comment.