Officials Set To Certify Arizona’s 2022 General Election Results

vote

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs will be joined by Governor Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel to certify the results of the state’s 2022 General Election during a signing ceremony at 10 a.m. on Monday.

The canvass will allow several automatic election recounts to begin.

The Arizona Attorney General’s race and the Superintendent of Public Education’s race are subject to automatic recounts under Arizona’s new one-half of one percent recount threshold.

A recount is also required in the Legislative District 13 (LD13) House race.

From Electionfacts.com:

Under Arizona law, a recount is automatically required if the margin between two candidates is 0.5 percent or less of the total votes cast. In 2022, for statewide races, that means a difference of roughly 13,000 votes or less. For federal, statewide, and legislative candidates and for statewide ballot measures, the margin is determined by the state tally of election results reported by Arizona counties. That tally, called the canvass, is officially reported on December 5, 2022. Because Arizona determines automatic recounts by law, no campaign or individual can request a separate recount in Arizona.

Once a recount has been triggered, the Secretary of State obtains a court order to initiate the recount. Each county re-runs its ballots through the tabulating machines, programmed to tabulate only the races requiring a recount. After the machine recount, counties perform hand-count audits of a small sample of ballots. Counties then submit their results to the Secretary of State, who provides the results to the court. The court then certifies the official result of the race(s) subject to the recount.

Several lawsuits challenging the election are also expected to proceed after the certification of the results, which had been previously dismissed due to the fact that the issues presented would not be “ripe” until the results became official. Attorneys for candidates Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh now have five days to file their election challenges.

Court Rules Hamadeh, RNC’s Lawsuit Filed Prematurely, Can Refile After State Canvass

The most notable lawsuit is that filed by Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee.

Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee filed the lawsuit over the handling of the 2022 General Election. In it, attorneys do not allege “any fraud, manipulation or other intentional wrongdoing that would impugn the outcomes of the November 8, 2022 General Election.” They do however, claim that election was rife with “gross incompetence and mismanagement.”

“The election was, however, afflicted with certain errors and inaccuracies in the management of some polling place operations, and in the processing and tabulation of some ballots. The cumulative effect of these mistakes is material to the race for Arizona Attorney General, where the candidates are separated by just 510 votes out of more than 2.5 million ballots cast-a margin of two one-hundredths of one percent (0.02%),” argued Hamadeh’s attorneys.

About ADI Staff Reporter 12171 Articles
Under the leadership of Editor-in -Chief Huey Freeman, our team of staff reporters bring accurate,timely, and complete news coverage.