Democrat wins race for Arizona attorney general after recount

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

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

Hamadeh, who did not concede to Mayes, had filed a separate challenge to his race results, but a judge dismissed that case last week.

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

In the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Horne finished the recount with a 9,188-vote lead. Hoffman previously conceded to Horne, a former school leader 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 got 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 race for governor of Arizona by just over 17,000 votes, the race for governor was not close enough to trigger an automatic recount.

Recounts are required in Arizona in races where the margin between the top contenders is 0.5% or less. Hobbs beat Lake by 0.67%.

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

Lake, who did not give in to Lake, is appealing the dismissal of his lawsuit to the Supreme Court of Arizona. Hobbs takes office as governor on Monday.

Once a Republican stronghold, Arizona’s top races have been resoundingly for Democrats. Republicans had named a slate of candidates backed by former President Donald Trump who focused on supporting his false claims about the 2020 election. Besides Hobbs and Mayes, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly won re-election and the Democrat Adrian Fontes has won the race for Secretary of State.