Republican Candidates Issue New Lawsuit

The GOP nominees for three statewide positions in Arizona have filed lawsuits contesting the results of the midterm elections after their narrow losses against their Democratic opponents.

Republican nominees Kari Lake, running for governor, Mark Finchem, running for secretary of state, and Abe Hamadeh, running for attorney general, have all filed challenges on Friday. These challenges were filed four days after the election results were certified and the definitive winner in most races, including the gubernatorial and Senate contests was established.

In the governor’s race, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) managed to defeat Lake in a 0.6-point difference. In the secretary of state race Democrat Adrian Fontes won by around 5 points, defeating Finchem.

Democrat Kris Mayes also won by around 511 votes against Hamadeh. This means that the race was won with less than a 0.1-point difference. This is the exact reason why that race is also going to be recounted as is the Arizona law regarding races where there is a less than 0.5 point difference.

Recounts for the attorney general race, the state superintendent race, and a state House race have already begun.

Following the certification of the election, candidates usually have around five days to file challenges against the results of the elections.

Lake sued Hobbs and the Maricopa County recorder, board of supervisors, and director of elections in their official capacities after there were many incidents that affected the electoral process in those areas.

The issues this is regarding mainly took place in, were there problems with the ballot printers as the printing was too light and the machine could not pick up the vote. As a result, many voters had to wait in line until the issue was resolved or go to vote in a different voting center. They could also drop their ballot in a separate box which would allow them to be counted later.

However, Lake’s campaign has maintained that that would have led to ballots not being counted due to the checkout procedures not being followed and the ballots being blended.