America First Legal Files Brief in Arizona Election Lawsuit to Ensure Votes Are Counted Properly

AFL:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, America First Legal (AFL) filed an amicus brief with the Arizona Supreme Court in the election contest of Arizona Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh. 

Before the trial in this case had even started, election officials in Arizona had already finished a mandatory recount in this race. That recount showed that, because of mistakes in tabulation, the lead of Hamadeh’s opponent had narrowed from 511 votes to just 280 votes (out of more than 2 million cast). Yet, even though the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office knew about this mistake and that margin had narrowed, she and her lawyers withheld that information from Hamadeh during the trial. The Secretary’s lawyer even made arguments to the judge that presupposed Hamadeh had to overcome a 511-vote deficit to win his case rather than the 280 votes that were the real margin. The Secretary of State’s office also opposed at every turn Hamadeh’s lawful attempts to inspect ballots, including provisional ballots, to prepare for his case.

Only after Hamadeh’s case had concluded were the recount results released. And only after the case was over did election officials finally respond to Hamadeh’s requests for important election documents. When they finally delivered those documents, Hamadeh and his team discovered that there were major problems with voters’ registrations being involuntarily canceled, thus forcing a larger-than-normal proportion of voters to cast provisional ballots, which never ended up being counted. more