Democrat wins Arizona attorney general race after recount

PHOENIX (AP) — A recount of votes has confirmed Democrat Kris Mayes narrowly defeated Republican Abraham Hamadeh in the Arizona attorney general’s race, one of the closest elections in state history.

The highly anticipated results announced Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court are among the last in the country to come out of November’s election and solidified another victory for Democrats who shunned election fraud conspiracies in what used to be a solidly Republican state. Mayes finished 280 votes ahead of Hamadeh, down from a lead of 511 in the original count. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

Hamadeh attorney Tim La Sota declined to comment after the hearing ended. Mayes and Hamadeh were not in court during the hearing

Judge Timothy Thomason, who also announced the results of recounts in two other races, said Republican Tom Horne prevailed in the race for state superintendent of public instruction and Republican Liz Harris won a state legislative seat in the Phoenix suburbs.

The automatic recounts were required because the races were so close.

Hamadeh, who hasn’t conceded to Mayes, had filed a separate challenge of the results in his race, but a judge dismissed that case last week.

Hamadeh alleged problems with ballot printers in Maricopa County had led to a series of issues that disenfranchised voters and that his race was affected by improper handling of ballots that were duplicated or adjudicated by people because they could not be read by tabulators. In throwing out the lawsuit, a judge concluded Hamadeh didn’t prove the errors in vote counting that he had alleged.

In the race for superintendent of public instruction, Horne ended the recount with a 9,188-vote lead. Hoffman had previously conceded to Horne, a former schools chief who served one term as attorney general before losing the 2014 primary. Horne posted a net gain of 221 votes in the recount.

Harris won with a 275-vote advantage over Republican Julie Willoughby in the race for a seat in state House District 13, which includes parts of the Phoenix-area suburbs of Chandler, Sun Lakes and Gilbert. Harris had a net gain of five votes in the recount.

Although Republican Kari Lake filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the Arizona governor’s race by just over 17,000 votes, the governor’s race wasn’t close enough to trigger an automatic recount.

Recounts are required in Arizona in races where the margin between the leading candidates is 0.5% or less. Hobbs defeated Lake by 0.67%.

The judge who dismissed Lake’s case rejected her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the result of intentional misconduct.

Lake, who has not conceded to Lake, is appealing the dismissal of her lawsuit with the Arizona Supreme Court. Hobbs takes office as governor on Monday.

Once a Republican stronghold, Arizona’s top races went resoundingly for Democrats. Republicans had nominated a slate of candidates backed by former President Donald Trump who focused on supporting his false claims about the 2020 election. In addition to Hobbs and Mayes, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was reelected and Democrat Adrian Fontes won the race for secretary of state.