Democratic Election lawyer Marc Elias revealed the Arizona Supreme Court has just sanctioned the Republican National Committee.
Failed Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh had asked the state Supreme Court to overturn his 2022 loss and issue a new trial. Hamadeh lost to Democrat Kris Mayes by just 280 votes.
His earlier attempts in court have failed.
The request comes from claims that there were over 500 "uncounted votes in Pinal County," reported the Arizona Mirror last week. "He also alleges that changes made to Service Arizona and the Arizona Voter Information Database resulted in as many as 1,000 rejected provisional ballots."
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The problem is that they went straight from Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen's rejection that came in July, and the case should have gone to the court of appeals. But Hamadeh skipped that step.
Hamadeh’s bid for a do-over, saying the time for election contests is long past and his revised arguments still don’t include any actual proof.
The Arizona Supreme Court's ruling said: "Because Petitioners were not only aware that they needed a final judgment to seek appellate relief but also misrepresented to this Court that they had sought such relief when they had not done so, and because this representation was the underlying premise upon which this petition was brought, and because all of Petitioners' claims for trial court error can be presented on appeal, we find that the special action unnecessarily expanded the proceeding and compelled Respondents to incur the unnecessary expense of filing their court-ordered response."
"Therefore, IT IS FURTHER ORDERED (sic) granting Respondent Mayes' and Respondent Fontes' request against Petitioners ... and for their reasonable attorney fees incurred to respond to the petition," it continued.
Elias said via social media that the "RNC and Hamadeh" must pay the other side's attorney fees.
See the screen capture of the ruling below or at the link here.
