Abraham Hamadeh
Role at the time: U.S. representative from Arizona
Statement summary
Hamadeh argues that the incident belongs to a pattern and should not be treated as a single isolated mistake.
“This isn't their first "mistake." ... One error is incompetence. A pattern is a system.”
Hamadeh, writing from his congressional office account, says Runbeck "mistakenly" mailed 3,126 ballots six days early and that this is not Maricopa's first "mistake".
Why we used this label
The reference point is the claim that the early ballot mailing was deliberate misconduct. Hamadeh puts "mistake" in quotation marks, calls this release part of a pattern and says "A pattern is a system", which disputes the account of a one-off error without stating that this release was intentional. The closest competing label, Defended or excused, loses because he stops short of endorsing the claim of deliberate misconduct.