An Arizona judge dismissed the election-challenge lawsuit from state attorney general candidate Abraham Hamadeh on Friday, after the Republican failed to provide sufficient reasons for advancing his case beyond an evidentiary hearing.
On Tuesday, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen granted Hamadeh's request to provide more evidence of the case going to trial, allowing four out of five filed counts to move forward then.
However, on Friday, Hamadeh's legal team didn't offer any more compelling "elements to the case," from Judge Jantzen's perspective.
"The bottom line is you just haven't proven your case. You haven't met the burden. The mistakes that may have been made were not enough to overcome the presumption the court has to have in election cases," ruled Jantzen. "It just doesn't overcome the presumption that the election was done correctly."
The dismissed counts included the following allegations from Hamadeh's team:
- Inaccurate ballot duplications
- The wrongful exclusion of provisional ballots
- Erroneously counted ballots in Maricopa County, the largest county in the state
Last month, Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee filed a suit against Democratic nominee Kris Mayes, Arizona Secretary of State and Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, and several other election officials across the state.
It's worth noting: The lawsuit dismissal doesn't necessarily preclude Hamadeh from ultimately winning the attorney general race. Rather, only this portion of his challenge has been summarily dismissed through the courts.
In the initial count, Mayes reportedly led Hamadeh by 511 votes, thus triggering a statewide recount as Arizona law requires for elections where the margin rate is less than 0.5%.
The recount will take place next week.
In one regard, Judge Jantzen praised Hamadeh for bringing a case based on "specific arguments of unintentional mistakes influencing the final results instead of widespread voter fraud."
Jantzen acknowledged that some of the contested ballots were invalid due to voter error and not following instructions. However, he also stated there has been no evidence that attempts to get voters to fill out the ballot correctly "were swayed in favor of one candidate or another."
After the ruling, Hamadeh took to social media, stating that "thousands" of uncounted provisional ballots and thousands of voters were disenfranchised.
Hamadeh also teased his legal team would await the results of the recount before plotting their next moves.
"Election Day in Maricopa County was a disaster," said Hamadeh. "Election officials failed democracy."
Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor, and Mark Finchem, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, have also filed election challenges in Arizona.
According to The Hill, Hamadeh's lawsuit differed from the Lake and Finchem lawsuits in one profound way:
Unlike Lake and Finchem, Hamadeh wasn't alleging widespread fraud or intentional wrongdoing in his race against Hayes.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.