Fontes seeks attorney fees in Hamadeh’s 2022 election challenge

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is seeking $36,820 in attorney fees from Abraham Hamadeh, after the Republican’s latest attempt to take the office he lost two years ago was thrown out of court. 

Fontes, who oversees election procedures across the state, denounced the legal challenge Hamadeh launched against Maricopa County election processes, and said that Hamadeh should reimburse the costs racked up to defend against it. 

“This representation required intricate and important work, included matters of statewide importance, and concerned parties of significant prominence and character.This action never should have been filed and the fees incurred were necessarily expended to achieve total success,” wrote attorney Craig Morgan. 

Hamadeh, who lives in Scottsdale and is hoping to represent a West Valley district in Congress this November, filed a writ of quo warranto in January urging Maricopa County Superior Court to depose Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and install him in the office instead. Mayes, a Democrat, won the 2022 midterm election by just 280 votes. That defeat prompted Hamadeh to mount a series of legal challenges to convince the courts that the election was unlawfully run, many of which failed to move forward for lack of convincing evidence. The latest challenge centered around allegations that the election which delivered Mayes her seat was marred by illegal voter verification procedures. 

In his filing, Hamadeh argued that he deserves to be the state’s top attorney because the election that Mayes won was unfairly swayed by illegal signature verification processes used in the state’s most populous county. Maricopa County election officials, Hamadeh’s attorney claimed, allowed the signatures on mail-in ballot affidavits in the 2022 election to be checked against ballot signatures submitted during past elections. State law, Hamadeh’s campaign said, only allows cross referencing a ballot signature against that person’s voter registration form 

The way election officials verify mail-in ballots has been a frequent source of contention among Republicans, despite the fact that the practice of using historical ballot signatures to verify new ballots has existed since the Election Procedures Manual, which has the force of law, was updated in 2019 to allow for comparison to all documents in a person’s entire voting record. Hamadeh’s campaign has attempted to make the same argument in more than one lawsuit, and each time has been notified that the courts have consistently held that issues with how elections are run must be raised before the election is carried out.  

Judge Susanna Pineda was unimpressed by the rehashing of old and previously rejected arguments, ruling that the filing was groundless and made in bad faith. Pineda instructed defendants Fontes and Mayes to submit their motions to recoup attorney fees by April 22. Richie Taylor, a spokesman for Mayes, said her motion has not yet been filed. Pineda also authorized sanctions against Hamadeh and his attorney, Ryan Heath. Arizona law punishes “unjustified actions” with a $5,000 fine.