An attorney for failed Republican candidate Abraham Hamadeh admitted in court proceedings that his client simply did not have the votes or evidence needed to move forward with the case.
An Arizona judge has dismissed the elections-related lawsuit filed by Republican Abraham Hamadeh, who alleged that widespread voter fraud caused him to lose the state race for attorney general.
According to The Associated Press, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen issued his ruling shortly after Hamadeh’s attorney, Tim La Sota, acknowledged that his client likely had not obtained enough votes to have won the election.
Hamadeh, notes The Associated Press, lost to Democratic challenger Kris Mayes by a mere 511 votes.
“You haven’t met the burden,” Jantzen said shortly before ruling against Hamadeh.
During the course of the lawsuit, both parties were allowed to inspect a sample of 2,300 ballots.
During the inspection, Hamadeh gained a net six votes, while Mayes gained an additional three.
“If you extrapolate the numbers, they are not going to get us to 511 votes if you take the sample we have,” said La Sota, who had earlier petitioned the court to order a larger sample.
The race between Hamadeh and Mayes were so close that Arizona had already initiated an “automatic” recount of the ballots.
Hamadeh has already complained on Twitter about election-related difficulties in Maricopa County, saying that he and his team will “await the results of the recount before deciding our next steps.”
In a separate statement, attorney Andrew Gaona, who is representing Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, called the lawsuit a “spectacular waste of everyone’s time.”
The Associated Press reports that, under current Arizona law, Hamadeh would have only prevailed in his challenge had he sufficient evidence to demonstrate that he would have won the election if not for misconduct and outside interference.
Dan Barr, an attorney for Mayes, raised similar concerns, lambasting the lawsuit as a frivolous waste of time and resources.
“What on earth are we doing here?” Barr asked. “People can’t file complaints with no facts.”
Barr further said that, in his 37 years of practicing law, he had “never been involved in such a gigantic waste of time as this case.”
“The judiciary and the bar needs [sic] to step up to the plate here and to sanction this conduct,” Barr said. “It has gone too far for too long.”
Somewhat interestingly, La Sota—Hamadeh’s attorney—also seems to have conceded that he had no adequately proved his case.
“They’re often not successful,” La Sota said of similar, election-related lawsuits.
“We pled a complaint in good faith,” he added.
As LegalReader.com has reported before, several other Arizona candidates—all Republicans who lost their bids for various state-level positions—have also filed challenges alleging that election interference and voter fraud cost them their campaigns.
Recently, a judge dismissed all but two counts from Kari Lake’s lawsuit, scheduling a two-day trial in early January.
Lake, a prominent Trump supporter who lost the gubernatorial race by thousands of votes, has maintained that Maricopa County suffered long wait times and printer malfunctions that drove Republicans away from the polls.
Sources
Arizona judge allows attorney general candidate’s election challenge to go to trial
Arizona Republican loses lawsuit over attorney general race
Judge rules against GOP candidate for Ariz. attorney general who sued to reverse results
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