Judge slaps election-denying Arizona Republican with new sanctions over 'bad faith' claims

Mark Finchem, the election-denying failed Republican Arizona secretary of state candidate, was hit with sanctions on Monday over what a judge ruled were "bad faith" arguments to overturn his election loss.

In a new ruling, Maricopa County Judge Melissa Iyer Julian argued that the purported evidence presented in Finchem's own filings was enough for her to conclude that his efforts to overturn his loss were not made in good faith.

"Attached to Finchem’s Amended Statement was his own expert’s analysis of the alleged failure to count so-called 'black box votes,'" wrote Judge Julian. "Finchem’s expert report identified 80,000 potentially 'missing votes.' Yet, Finchem lost the election he challenged by 120,208 votes. That margin was so significant that even if it were assumed that 80,000 votes were missing and that those votes would all have been cast in his favor, the result of the election would not have changed."

The judge concluded by awarding "reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred" that were incurred by Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in their efforts to stop Finchem's efforts to overturn his election defeat.

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Fontes and Hobbs now have 20 calendar days to submit statements of cost to recoup legal fees they had to pay as a result of Finchem's lawsuit.

Finchem, like failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, has refused to concede his race even after his opponent had been sworn into office earlier this year.

Read the whole ruling here (PDF).