Election recount affirms Kris Mayes' Arizona AG win in over Abe Hamadeh

Results of a recount in three midterm election races confirmed that Democrat Kris Mayes defeated Republican Abe Hamadeh for Arizona attorney general.
The highly anticipated results announced on Dec. 29 in Maricopa County Superior Court showed that 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's 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.