The Arizona Republican Party has been ordered to pay more than $18,000 in legal fees to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office because of a lawsuit challenging the way ballots were audited in Maricopa County.
Judge John R. Hannah Jr. slammed the lawsuit as “groundless” and said the Arizona GOP “refuses to admit having sued the wrong party.”
The lawsuit was not brought in “good faith,” the judge continued. “These were flimsy excuses for a lawsuit.” (RELATED: Arizona GOP Encourages Constituents To Give Their ‘Lives’ Over Trump’s Election Dispute)
Judge Orders Arizona GOP to Pay Up for Filing ‘Groundless’ Lawsuit Challenging 2020 Election Resultshttps://t.co/ULpz6XnydR
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“The plaintiff is effectively admitting that the suit was brought primarily for an improper purpose,” Hannah wrote. “It is conceding that the method of sampling ballots for the hand count audit is a minor procedural requirement, not a necessary step towards a fair election. It is saying that it filed this lawsuit for political reasons.”
The original lawsuit filed by the Arizona GOP took issue with the manner in which Maricopa County audited the election vote tallies. Instead of performing a hand count of a sample of ballots from “precincts” in the county, ballots were hand-counted from “polling places,” meaning the audit was not in accordance with Arizona law, the Arizona GOP alleged.
The Arizona GOP’s lawsuit was one of many filed across battleground states challenging the results of the 2020 election. Former President Donald Trump repeatedly asserted that the election was fraudulent, prompting a wave of mostly unsuccessful lawsuits.