In recent years, Arizona's status as a Republican stronghold has significantly weakened; since 2018, Democratic candidates have made substantial gains in the state's legislature, congressional delegation, and statewide executive offices. Going into the 2022 midterm elections, Arizona was considered a crucial swing state.[1][2]
Lawsuits contesting the election results were filed by the Republican candidates for governor, secretary of state, and attorney general, but the Arizona Superior Court ruled against the Republican candidates.
The Libertarian Party nominated Marc Victor, an attorney and the party's nominee for U.S. Senate in 2012. Victor withdrew from the race and endorsed Masters on November 1, 2022.[10]
A Blake Masters For Senate Yard Sign In Oro Valley, Arizona
Results
Incumbent senatorMark Kelly won reelection with 51.4% of the vote.[11] Blake Masters has conceded his election loss.[12]
United States Senate election in Arizona, 2022[13]
A Kris Mayes For Arizona Attorney General yard sign in Tucson
Results
The original round of vote counting ended on November 21, with Mayes having 511 more votes than Hamadeh in unofficial results, within the 0.5% margin for an automatic recount.[23] The results of the recount were announced on December 29, with Mayes having 280 more votes than Hamadeh.[24]
Arizona Attorney General election, 2022, recount[24]
Incumbent Republican state treasurerKimberly Yee originally announced her intentions to retire to run for governor. However, she later withdrew from that race to instead run for reelection. She was first elected in 2018 with 54.3% of the vote.
Former Republican Mine InspectorJoe Hart was term-limited by the Arizona Constitution and unable to seek re-election. He was re-elected in 2018 with 51.7% of the vote. Hart resigned on October 31, 2021, and was replaced by Paul Marsh, who was immediately eligible to run for a full term.[37] Marsh then ran un-opposed and was elected to a four-year term outright.[38]
Trista di Genova was the Democratic write-in candidate.
Would require additional campaign finance disclosure
Yes
1,734,313
72.3
663,080
27.7
308
Repeals proposition 300 that bans in-state tuition for undocumented high school students in Arizona.[59][60]
Yes
1,248,535
51.2
1,188,338
48.8
309
Would require identification when voting by mail.
No
1,201,181
49.6
1,219,668
50.4
310
Imposes a sales tax to support fire districts.
No
1,144,494
48.2
1,230,042
51.8
Source
School board & proposition yard signs in Oro Valley
Certification
14 of Arizona's 15 counties certified the voting results by the November 28, 2022 deadline; the exception was Cochise County.[61] Despite no evidence of irregularities with vote counting, Cochise County's Republican officials delayed their certification vote to December 2, 2022, to accommodate a hearing on the certification of voting machines.[62] Previously on November 21, Arizona's State Elections Director, Kori Lorick, had sent Cochise County officials confirmation that the Cochise County's voting machines had been certified by the United States Election Assistance Commission in an accredited laboratory.[63] However, the county's Republican officials insisted on hearing more from those who had without evidence alleged that the voting machines were not properly certified.[64] Cochise County election officials certified the county's voting results on December 1, after a court order was issued by Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley, who cited that by law, since Cochise County were no longer tabulating votes and had no missing votes, a certification vote needed to take place within 20 days of the election, which was November 28.[65]
Lawsuits over results
Kari Lake's lawsuit
Unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake initiated a lawsuit on December 9 seeking a court order to either overturn Katie Hobbs' victory and declare Lake as the winner of the election, or redo the election in Maricopa County.[66][67] On December 19, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed eight of ten counts of Lake's lawsuit, regarding invalid signatures on mail-in ballots, incorrect certification, inadequate remedy, as well as violations of freedom of speech, equal protection, due process, the secrecy clause, and constitutional rights.[68][69] Judge Thompson allowed the remaining two counts to go to trial, these being allegations that election officials intentionally interfered with Maricopa County ballot printers and with the chain of custody of Maricopa County ballots; Judge Thompson ruled that Lake needed to prove the allegations and that the alleged actions "did in fact result in a changed outcome" of the election.[70][71] After the trial occurred on December 21 and December 22, Judge Thompson dismissed Lake's remaining case on December 24, as the court did not find clear and convincing evidence that misconduct was committed.[72][73][74] Judge Thompson wrote: "Every single witness before the Court disclaimed any personal knowledge of such [intentional] misconduct. The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence".[75][76]
Lake appealed on December 27 to the Arizona Court of Appeals against Judge Thompson's rulings.[77] Lake also attempted to have the lawsuit transferred before the Arizona Supreme Court, but the Arizona Supreme Court rejected this without prejudice on January 4, 2023, as "no good cause appears to transfer the matter to this court"; by this date, Hobbs had already assumed the position of Arizona Governor.[78] On February 16, a three-judge panel for the Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed Thompson's ruling; chief judge Kent Cattani wrote the opinion and two other judges, Maria Elena Cruz and Peter Swann, concurred.[79][80] The appeals court found that the evidence presented in court showed, contrary to Lake's claims, that "voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results".[81]
After Lake appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, it issued a ruling on March 22, 2023, written by Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, finding that the Arizona Court of Appeals correctly dismissed six of Lake's seven legal claims, as these challenges of hers were "insufficient to warrant the requested relief under Arizona or federal law."[82][83][84] For Lake's remaining legal claim, on signature verification, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts incorrectly interpreted her challenge as pertaining to signature verification policies themselves, instead of the application of such policies; thus this issue was sent back for Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson to reconsider.[83]
After a second trial, Judge Thompson on May 22, 2023 dismissed Lake's remaining claim on improper signature verification, stating that Lake had not provided "clear and convincing evidence or a preponderance of evidence" of misconduct in the election; instead the court received "ample evidence that — objectively speaking — a comparison between voter records and signatures was conducted in every instance [that Lake] asked the Court to evaluate."[85][86] While Lake's attorneys ultimately argued that signature verification was done too quickly, Thompson concluded that it was possible for signature verification to be done quickly and properly when "looking at signatures that, by and large, have consistent characteristics".[85][87]
Sonny Borrelli's lawsuit
Republican Arizona state senator Sonny Borrelli filed a lawsuit on December 12 to invalidate the results of the gubernatorial election won by Katie Hobbs.[88][89] On December 16, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen dismissed Borrelli's lawsuit as Borrelli's lawyers waited too long to provide service to the defendants, thus there was not enough time to conclude the lawsuit by the legal deadline for election challenges.[88]
Mark Finchem's lawsuit
Unsuccessful Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem filed a lawsuit on December 9 to have the election "nullified and redone".[90] The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice on December 16 by Maricopa County Superior Court judge Melissa Julian.[91][92][93] Among other issues, Judge Julian rejected the merits of Finchem's arguments on voting machines certification and voting software certification, and separately concluded that Finchem "does not allege that any of the votes cast were actually illegal" and does not allege that any legal vote was not counted, but only alleged "suspicions that some votes may not have been counted", which was insufficient to overturn an election.[92][94][95] Judge Julian also rejected Finchem's allegations of "misconduct" by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs as insufficient.[92]
Judge Julian in March 2023 sanctioned Finchem and his lawyer to pay the legal fees of Fontes' campaign and office because Finchem's lawsuit was "groundless and not brought in good faith."[96] The judge noted that a supposed expert called by Finchem asserted that there were "missing votes", but the number of "missing votes" claimed was not enough to change the result of the election.[97] The judge cited Finchem's decision not to inspect ballots as indicating that Finchem "had no expectation that an inspection would yield a favorable outcome", which further "demonstrates that Finchem challenged his election loss despite knowing that his claims regarding misconduct and procedural irregularities were insufficient under the law to sustain the contest."[98] Finchem reacted to the sanctions by calling for Judge Julian to be "removed from the bench for her abuse of judicial authority".[99] In May 2023, Judge Julian ruled that the amount of legal fees and costs that Finchem is to pay to Fontes is $40,565.[100]
Finchem appealed the rejection of his election challenge, then abandoned the appeal in July 2023, with his lawyer citing other failed 2022 election challenging lawsuits in Arizona; however Finchem continued to appeal the sanctions against him in this case.[101]
Abe Hamadeh's lawsuits
Republican candidate for attorney general, Abe Hamadeh, filed a lawsuit on November 22 in an attempt to be declared the winner, despite his opponent Kris Mayes having more votes at the time; Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice on November 29, ruling that it was premature because Arizona had yet to certify the election and declare election results.[102][103]
While awaiting a recount for the election due to the close result, Hamadeh, who was behind in the original count, initiated a lawsuit on December 9 "to ensure that all lawfully cast votes are properly counted and that unlawfully cast votes are not counted".[104] Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen noted that Hamadeh's lawsuit was different from others because Hamadeh "is not alleging political motives or fraud or personal agendas being pushed", but "is simply alleging misconduct by mistake, or omission by election officials, led to erroneous count of votes and which if true could have led to an uncertain result" of the election.[105] Judge Jantzen on December 20 dismissed one count of the lawsuit alleging that Hamadeh's unverified early ballots were illegal votes.[105] The rest of the lawsuit was regarding wrongful disqualification of provisional and early ballots, wrongful exclusion of provisional voters, inaccurate ballot duplications, and inaccurate ballot adjudications; Judge Jantzen denied the remainder of Hamadeh's election challenge on December 23 at the end of a three-hour evidentiary hearing, stating that there was an absence of "even slight information" that "the election was done illegally or incorrectly".[106][107][108]
Hamadeh filed another lawsuit regarding the election result on January 4, 2023, after Mayes had already been sworn in as attorney general; the new lawsuit cited that the "recount results identified significant, material discrepancies" which were not known to the court during the previous lawsuit.[109] Judge Jantzen rejected this lawsuit in July 2023, writing that election laws "preclude issuing a new trial with extended discovery", and finding that there was no new evidence that could not have been previously produced at the original trial.[110]
Independent investigation into printing problems
The results of an independent investigation into the 2022 election's printing problems was published in April 2023; the investigation was led by a retired chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, Ruth McGregor, who concluded that "the primary cause of the election day failures was equipment failure", and that no evidence gathered gave "clear indication that the problems should have been anticipated". McGregor also detailed: "Two-thirds of the general election vote centers reported no issues with misprinted ballots; approximately 94 percent of election day ballots were not faulty".[111][112]
Notes
^Key: A – all adults RV – registered voters LV – likely voters V – unclear
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