Arizona Completes Mandatory Recount of Attorney General Race

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Dec. 29, a court in Arizona released the results of the state’s mandatory recount of the 2022 attorney general election. The recount confirmed the outcome in the race, with Kris Mayes (D) defeating Abe Hamadeh (R) by 280 votes in one of the closest elections of 2022. The state also conducted a recount for the superintendent of public instruction and a state House district in Maricopa County.

In the pre-recount results in the attorney general race, Mayes led Hamadeh by just 511 votes out of over 2.5 million votes cast. The tight margin triggered an automatic recount under Arizona law, which was initially scheduled to be completed by Thursday, Dec. 22. However, the secretary of state’s office asked the court to postpone the completion of the recount due to Pinal County’s delay in completing the recount and Hamadeh’s election contest, which has since been rejected.

Arizona officials attributed the discrepancy between the initial results and the recount to errors in Pinal County, a Republican-led county south of Phoenix. The inconsistencies were due to human error on the part of election staff, including misfiled provisional ballots, poorly trained poll workers and improper ballot tabulation.