WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Updates on Arizona's 3 Ongoing 2022 Election Contest Cases!

 SHORT ANSWERS:

1) Kari Lake's Election Contest (Governor race) is in the intermediate Court of Appeals (Division 2). She just filed her Opening Brief.

2) Abe Hamadeh's Election Contest in the ultra-close (280) Attorney General race is in the strange purgatory time period between filing the Notice of Appeal in the trial court and the Court of Appeals docketing it.

3) Mark Finchem's Election Contest in the ultra-not-close Secretary of State race is in the Court of Appeals. He has dropped his substantive appeal of the dismissal and is only contesting the $48,000 in sanctions assessed by the trial court after dismissing the case. (Although he did pay the sanctions.)

TO THE MOUNTAINTOP... WHERE THEY'VE BEEN:

All three contests have already made visits or neo-visits to the Arizona Supreme Court. The Justices affirmed the dismissal of all but one of Lake's counts, and sent that last one back for a trial (held in May). The Justices also recently rebuffed Lake's efforts to bring her first appeal straight to the highest court, and her attempt to block the (random) transfer of the second appeal to Division 2.

Happier times (photo by Gage Skidmore)

Hamadeh's attorneys filed a Special Action Petition directly with the Justices, because his trial judge was not signing a final, appealable judgment. That Petition was quickly dismissed, and sanctions were ordered. Hamadeh just filed an objection to the amount of fees being sought by Kris Mayes' attorneys. 

And Finchem had initially floated the idea that he might take his appeal directly to the Supreme Court (as is permitted under the Rules in some instances). He never did, but the Supreme Court caused some confusion by opening up a docket "in anticipation". They caused some (continuing) confusion on December 28 when they issued an Order closing that docket.

WHAT'S NEXT: 

1) Lake: The defendants'/appellees' Answering Briefs are due by October 26 - although they can file them sooner. A Reply Brief is then due by 20 days. No effort to expedite the briefing schedule was made, and Lake waited nearly two months after the appeal was transferred to Division 2 before filing her Brief at the deadline.

2) Hamadeh: The Court of Appeals will soon docket both Hamadeh's most recent appeal (the first one was dismissed as premature) and the defendants' Cross-Appeals (on the denial of sanctions). Hamadeh's attorneys have indicated that they will try to expedite the briefing schedule.

3) Finchem: Answering Briefs are due by October 10. No expediting efforts made.

This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. 

"AZ Law" includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as trial and appellate courts, etc. AZ Law is founded by Phoenix attorney Paul Weich, and joins Arizona's Politics on the internet. 

AZ Law airs on non-profit Sun Sounds of Arizona, a statewide reading service that provides audio access to printed material for people who cannot hold or read print material due to a disability. If you know someone who could benefit from this 24/7 service, please let them know about member-supported Sun Sounds. And, YOU can donate or listen here. 

Previous episodes of AZ Law can be streamed or downloaded here, or wherever you get your podcasts.