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A judge refused Friday to overturn the results of the election for attorney general and declare Abe Hamadeh the winner.
"The bottom line is, you just haven't proven your case,'' Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen told Tim La Sota who represents the unsuccessful Republican contender.
And he said any mistakes that may have been made in how ballots were counted "were not enough to overcome the presumption the court has to have in election cases ... that the election was done correctly.''
"There isn't enough information -- I don't think even slight information -- the election was done illegally or incorrectly,'' Jantzen said in ruling from the bench after the half-day trial.
The judge acknowledged there were 14 ballots presented -- out of about 2,300 reviewed -- where there could be some question of whether a vote should have been counted, whether for Hamadeh or Democrat Kris Mayes. These were ballots where the marks on the ballots was less than clear.
But Jantzen said that isn't enough for him to rule that county election officials, who checked these ballots by hand, had done something wrong.
"For the most part, these 14 ballots would be voter error, not filling them out the way the instructions say,'' the judge said.
And even La Sota conceded that extrapolating out these alleged errors would still not overcome the 511-vote deficit for his client.
He said, though, it might have been different had the judge allowed him to examine even more ballots from Maricopa, Pima and Navajo counties. But Jantzen said that request went beyond the scope of what's allowed in election contests which have to be resolved quickly.
The results of the race are still not official.
All 15 counties are conducting a recount because the margin of difference was within what is required under Arizona law. That tally is expected to be announced this coming week.
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