Legal scholars largely agree that a timely remedy, especially in election contests, is a sign of a healthy republic; in the case of Republican candidate Abe Hamadeh, however, it took the better part of a year after an election to get anywhere.
Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen initially delayed in issuing a judgment in Hamadeh’s case, even though he remarked in the mid-May oral arguments that he would issue a ruling after several weeks.
When Jantzen finally got around to signing his orders late last month — after both the Arizona Supreme Court and the Arizona Court of Appeals said he should — he neglected to address several pending matters. That nullified the finality of his “final” ruling.
The halting progress of Hamadeh’s case changed on Wednesday, however, with Jantzen promptly signing off on a judgment addressing the pending matters. Jantzen didn’t conclude his work proactively. It was the unified effort by both Hamadeh and his opponent, Attorney General Kris Mayes, that got the ball rolling.
Hamadeh and Mayes, along with Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Maricopa County, Mohave County, and Navajo County, filed a motion on Wednesday requesting Jantzen to issue a final judgment on the remaining matters at hand.
As part of that motion, Mayes withdrew her request for costs except for ballot inspection costs. Additionally, Mohave and Navajo counties both maintained their request for ballot inspect costs to be awarded.
Altogether, Hamadeh was ordered to pay out just over $5,200 in total to the trio.
Hamadeh called their success in obtaining immediate relief from Jantzen a “rare show of bipartisanship” in a press release. He also announced his intent to file an expedited appeal. He pledged a review of 9,000 ballots, allegedly uncounted and withheld from evidence.
Over 75,000 ballots were undervotes: those ballots which didn’t have an attorney general vote cast. Hamadeh’s team also discovered numerous uncounted votes during a sampling of ballots up for visual inspection, indicating tabulation issues across the state. In a race as close as that of Hamadeh and Mayes, with a victory margin halved by a recount to less than 300 votes, the discovery of uncounted votes raises doubts about the validity of the outcome.
Governor Katie Hobbs, while secretary of state, withheld evidence from the court in December concerning pervasive tabulation issues in Pinal County. That hindered Hamadeh in his initial challenge of the election, which lent to his court loss last December.
“The government does grave harm to its legitimacy when it withholds evidence. Democracy dies in darkness, so too does justice,” said Hamadeh. “Justice delayed is justice denied. The closest race in Arizona history, with the biggest recount discrepancy in history, deserves to have its day in court in a fair and impartial trial.”
⬇️ NEW STATEMENT ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Sf0vcrzedK
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) September 7, 2023
Mayes and Fontes initially opposed Hamadeh’s request for a new trial back in February.