Judge asked to toss Arizona GOP's 'fishing expedition' to overturn AG race

On Friday, the Arizona Capitol Timesreported that Kris Mayes, the Democratic candidate for Arizona Attorney General, has requested that a state judge toss the lawsuit by her Republican opponent, Abraham Hamadeh, to toss the results showing her as the winner of the election.

"In new legal papers, Dan Barr, Mayes’ attorney, said the lawsuit filed last week by Abe Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee is filled with various allegations ranging from poll worker misconduct to errors in duplicating ballots when the original could not be read by scanners," reported Howard Fischer. "'But their claims are based on no more than speculation and conjecture,' Barr told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Frank Moskowitz. 'Plaintiffs offer little factual support for their claims.' Instead, he said, Hamadeh and the RNC are using the court 'to engage in a fishing expedition to try to undermine Arizona’s election.'"

"Barr said even if everything Hamadeh alleged were true – a point he is not conceding – none of it matters. He said the GOP contender can’t prove any of this would have altered the outcome of the election or the final tally which showed Mayes winning by 510 votes," said the report. For example, Hamadeh claimed ballot duplication led to votes being counted incorrectly, but failed to prove that even if this were true, that it would cost him votes, as opposed to costing Mayes votes.

"Then there’s a claim that some early ballots were counted even when the signature on the envelope did not match what was on file in the person’s voter registration record," noted the report. "But here, too, Barr said, the claim 'would still fail as a matter of law because he alleges no facts establishing that any illegal votes were sufficient to change the outcome of the election.'"

The hearing on the Hamadeh/RNC lawsuit is scheduled to Monday.

Arizona Republicans suffered a catastrophic defeat in statewide races in the 2022 midterm election. In addition to Republican Senate candidate and venture capitalist Blake Masters losing to incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, Republicans also lost the open governor's race between Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Republican former news anchor Kari Lake, who has still not conceded. They also lost every lesser statewide race, except for the Treasurer and Corporation Commission races.