Abe Hamadeh, Republican National Committee file lawsuit against election officials

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee have filed a lawsuit against election officials across the state of Arizona, alleging “errors and inaccuracies” at some polling locations and in counting certain ballots during the election process.

“The voters of Arizona demand answers and deserve transparency about the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the General Election by certain election officials. Pervasive errors by our election officials resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless Arizonans who had their voices silenced. Arizonans deserve to have an election system that is transparent and fair and right now we have neither. Today’s challenge is the only way to provide accountability and restore confidence in our broken election system,” Hamadeh said in a statement.

According to a statement from Hamadeh, the 25-page lawsuit claims there was “election board misconduct, the tallying of unlawful ballots, and the erroneous counting of votes.” Hamadeh and other officials claim at least 146 voters weren’t properly checked out at their original polling location and went to a different location and voted with a provisional ballot, which won’t be counted. Another claim says at least 273 voters didn’t check out and had their early ballots voided.

On Wednesday, the attorney for Hamadeh’s opponent, Kris Mayes, released a statement regarding the lawsuit.

There was outcry about voting issues after tabulators at dozens of Maricopa County locations weren’t reading ballots. Election officials said voters who were having problems could drop their ballots in a secure door, known as Box 3. Officials later said all ballots were counted and no voter was turned away.

Hamadeh is currently behind Democrat Kris Mayes by 510 votes in the unofficial results. The race is set to go to an automatic recount since it’s within a 0.5% margin. However, the recount won’t begin until after the election is certified on Dec. 5 but should finish sometime before Christmas.

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