Judge rejects Abe Hamadeh’s latest bid to be named AG after 2022 loss

Two years, two failed lawsuits and a new campaign for a new office later, would-be Attorney General Abe Hamadeh is still racking up losses in the courts. 

On Monday, a Maricopa Superior Court Judge threw out Hamadeh’s latest bid to be awarded the seat he lost in 2022 by just 280 votes to Democrat Kris Mayes. In January, the Republican filed a writ of quo warranto, claiming that his defeat was due to unlawful signature verification procedures being used by Maricopa County officials and urging the court to install him as the rightful winner. 

The writ was a legal change of tactic after a bevy of election challenges were dismissed for being filed before the race was finalized, failing to provide a convincing argument, including no evidence and lying to skip over the appeals process. A quo warranto instead petitions a court to issue a declaration that someone is holding office illegally. 

Hamadeh, who lives in Scottsdale, is now running for Congress in a West Valley district.

Contention over signature verification processes were at the heart of Hamadeh’s arguments. State law requires election officials to certify mail-in ballots by verifying that the signature on the ballot’s affidavit envelope actually belongs to the voter who submitted it. 

Prior to 2019, Arizona law allowed only the signatures on voter registration forms to be compared against those on mail-in ballots. But lawmakers later greenlit the use of previously submitted and verified ballot signatures, in acknowledgement that a voter’s signature may change over time. 

Despite that, Hamadeh alleged that Maricopa County election officials erroneously used ballot signatures from past elections to verify ballots submitted in 2022, injecting thousands of illegal votes and tipping the race against him. Hamadeh asked the court to order that Mayes step down and require that Maricopa County redo its signature verification or conduct an entirely new election. 

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susanna Pineda wasn’t convinced, pointing out that Hamadeh has made the same argument against the county’s processes in other lawsuits and has been told it isn’t valid. During his second attempt to overturn his loss in December of 2022, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen dismissed a complaint against signature verification processes advanced by Hamadeh’s attorneys, noting that the time had long since passed to bring up issues with how election officials do their work. 

The courts have consistently ruled that legal challenges against election procedures must be brought before an election occurs, and Hamadeh had ample time to learn how Maricopa County conducts its elections, Pineda said. Not only have the procedures been standard practice since 2019, but the county also issued a public news release outlining its plans, including how it verifies signatures, in May of 2022 — months before the November election. Hamadeh’s request that the court nullify an election two years after the fact over an issue that should have been litigated before it was even carried out warrants an immediate rejection, Pineda said. 

“By filing his action after the completion of the election, (Hamadeh) asks the Court to overturn the will of the people, as expressed in the 2022 election. Because (Hamadeh’s) complaint is strictly a question of attacking the process used to carry out the election, his claim is untimely and mandates dismissal,” she wrote in her ruling.

On top of retracing ground that has already been sufficiently covered, Hamadeh doesn’t have the grounds to file a writ of quo warranto, Pineda added. Arizonans who submit a writ hoping to gain the seat in question must thoroughly prove their claim to it, not merely cast doubt on the current officeholder. But all that Hamadeh offered to bolster his claim and justify the extraordinary legal relief he seeks is speculation, Pineda said. 

“He surmises, without proof, that he received the most ‘legal votes’ for the office of Attorney General. This is insufficient to obtain the relief sought,” she wrote.

Pineda offered a blistering criticism of Hamadeh’s filing, saying that he should have been aware that it would fail to move forward. Attempting to cloak already dismissed arguments in a writ of quo warranto makes no difference, Pineda said. She denounced Hamadeh’s request as a bad faith filing and granted requests from Maricopa County officials and Mayes to recoup attorneys fees. 

Pineda also authorized sanctions against Hamadeh and his attorney Ryan Heath for submitting a case without “substantial justification”. Under state law, unjustified actions can be punished with up to a $5,000 fine. Defendants in the case, which include Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Mayes, have 20 days to file their statements on attorneys fees. 

“Waiting until December of 2023 to mount a second identical challenge to the Maricopa County process is unjustified and groundless,” Pineda wrote, adding: “The fact that this ‘elections challenge’ was cloaked in a shroud of quo warranto and mandamus, did not change the fact that it was an elections challenge that had already been lost.”

***UPDATE: This story has been updated to include information about sanctions against Hamadeh and his attorney.