Dec. 21 (UPI) — A month and a half after mid-term elections were held, an Arizona judge is permitting a lawsuit challenging the state’s results for attorney general to proceed.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month by the Republican National Committee and Abraham Hamadeh, the Republican candidate for secretary general who lost to Democrat Kris Mayers by 511 votes in the close Nov. 8 race in which more than 2.5 million ballots were cast.
Hamadeh is seeking “judicial intervention” to secure the accuracy of the results on accusations that errors were committed at some polling stations and in the processing of ballots.
In his ruling Tuesday, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen said four of five claims made by Hamadeh can proceed with an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Friday.
The four counts to be examined are erroneous votes counted, electoral board misconduct, improper ballot adjudications and wrongful disqualification of provisional voters and early ballots.
Jantzen, who did not rule on the merits of the case, said Hamadeh has the burden of proving his allegations had an effect on the outcome of the election.
The ruling comes after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge earlier this week dismissed eight of 10 claims made by Republican Kari Lake, who is seeking to over turn the election results in the state’s gubernatorial race, which she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Jantzen said in his ruling Tuesday that he is aware of that case, and this one differs in that Hamadeh is not accusing the state of purposefully interfering in the election for political purposes.
“It is simply alleging misconduct by mistake, or omission by election officials, led to erroneous count of votes and which if true could have led to an uncertain result,” he said.