Abe Hamadeh has filed his Opening Brief and a Motion to Expedite in the Arizona Court of Appeals seeking reversal of the trial court’s September 6th final judgment denying Hamadeh’s January 3rd request for a new trial.
Although the trial court believed the Arizona Attorney General’s race is “one of the closest elections in Arizona history and perhaps the history of the United States” and that there was critical, potentially outcome determinative evidence withheld by then Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County that could prove Abe Hamadeh received more votes for attorney general than Kris Mayes, it nonetheless denied Hamadeh’s Motion for a New Trial on the specious grounds that election contest statutes are exempt from due process, and that the government can withhold evidence.
Hamadeh is appealing that erroneous decision, and asking the Court of Appeals to make its decision quickly so that a new trial can commence as soon as possible.
The evidence withheld by Maricopa County led to the discovery of more than 1,000 rejected provisional ballots cast by previously active voters whose registrations appear to have been erroneously cancelled due to faulty government systems and procedures. The evidence withheld by then-Secretary Hobbs confirmed that machine tabulators in multiple counties misread votes as no votes (undervotes), which was the precise issue litigated at trial. Statewide, more than 70,000 votes were cast as undervotes in the Attorney General’s race.
In the final tally, Hamadeh trails Mayes by just 280 votes.
Although Hamadeh filed his Motion for a New Trial on January 3rd, and it was fully briefed by February 6th. The trial court waited until July 14th to deny the Motion. It then waited until September 6th to sign and finalize the order to make it appealable. The Court of Appeals took up the case on September 21st.
Hamadeh expects that once he is able to present the new evidence at trial, the court will be able to inspect and count both the erroneously rejected provisional ballots and valid votes misread as undervotes—proving that he, and not Kris Mayes received the most votes and that Hamadeh, and not Mayes, is the constitutionally elected Attorney General for Arizona.
“Our democracy demands honesty, transparency, and accountability in order to rebuild the trust that so many Arizonans have lost in our elections. Our case seeks to enfranchise over 9,000 voters who voted on Election Day and did their part to have a say in their government. Their constitutional right to vote matters and their votes deserve to be counted. I will continue to fight, to ensure that the will of the people is honored, and that our laws are upheld,” said Hamadeh in a tweet.
🚨 OUR ELECTION APPEAL IS FILED 🚨 pic.twitter.com/mT9kIjeWKs
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) September 27, 2023