Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee F. Jantzen denied Abe Hamadeh’s request for a new trial in his election contest over the attorney general’s race on Friday, issuing his opinion with the reasoning on Monday. He said “the evidence showed that only about six votes difference would have been found after reviewing the numerous undercounted ballots.”
Hamadeh issued a statement shortly afterwards, “The court’s ruling is an invitation to an appeal, and we will do just that.” He added in a tweet, “I have every confidence that the (Arizona) Supreme Court is not going to let this precedent stand. It would be a terrible precedent in terms of the legal community to have the government be able to withhold evidence & get away with it.”
Hamadeh wanted a new trial after his team discovered following the trial that up to 76,339 “undervotes” were not counted in the election. Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs withheld evidence of undervotes in Pinal County, which led to Kris Mayes’ lead shrinking to only 280 votes over Hamadeh, making it the closest statewide race in Arizona history. Hamadeh’s team wanted to investigate undervotes in all of Arizona’s counties.
In a five-page decision, Jantzen said, “The Arizona Constitution gives the Arizona legislature the right to make the rules concerning elections and they have created specific rules to handle election contests.”
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times