Judge dismisses Finchem lawsuit with prejudice (Arizona, against Katie Hobbs)

9KGUN Tucson.com ^ | 12/16/2022 | abc15.com staff

[Beave Meister]

A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mark Finchem with prejudice and confirmed the election of Adrian Fontes as Arizona Secretary of State-Elect.

The lawsuit focused on issues in the 2022 election, as well as the fact that Secretary of State Katie Hobbs did not recuse herself despite the fact she was running for governor.

Finchem's lawsuit called to take back the certification of Adrian Fontes and Ruben Gallego and reconduct a state-wide election. The election would be conducted without the use of electronic tabulation machines and no mail-in ballots. Each ballot would be counted by hand.

The judge also ordered that within 10 days, Hobbs and Fontes may file for sanctions.

[trustverify0128]

It looks like his filing set him up for failure. From the ruling:

“The evidence appended to Finchem’s own amended statement demonstrates that he pursued this contest in bad faith. Attached to Finchem’s Amended Statement was his own expert’s analysis of the alleged failure to count so-called “black box votes.” Finchem’s expert report identified 80,000 potentially “missing votes.” Yet, Finchem lost the election he challenged by 120,208 votes. That margin was so significant that even if it were assumed that 80,000 votes were missing and that those votes would all have been cast in his favor, the result of the election would not have changed. Indeed, Finchem withdrew his request to inspect the ballots under A.R.S. § 16-677, suggesting that he had no expectation that an inspection would yield a favorable outcome. This 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.”

https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/finchem-sanctions.pdf