Republican Party President in Arizona, Kelli Ward, is rejecting Republican demands for an audit of his re-election victory last week, despite still leading efforts to “stop the theft” to overthrow President Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Donald Trump.
Ward won a second term as president of the state’s Republican Party by 42 votes during last Saturday’s election, but is now facing demands from his competitor and other party members for a full audit of the results. Ward, speaking to a conservative Phoenix-based radio host on Saturday, scoffed at the growing allegations of electoral “irregularities” by Arizona Republicans, including committee man Trey Terry and Tucson businessman Sergio Arellano, who was second behind. Ward in the running for the president. Ward campaigned for “electoral integrity” and is leading an ongoing effort for a “thorough forensic audit” of Biden’s electoral victory in November.
In a video released on Thursday, Ward stated that the “final, final results” arrived and proved that she won her own election. But moments later, she praised her own efforts and those of the Republican state senators who hired an outsourced company to conduct a “full forensic audit” of Biden’s electoral victory in 2020 in Maricopa County. For weeks, Ward criticized Arizona Republicans and state election officials for refusing to nullify Biden’s victory over Trump, who offered his “total and total endorsement” to her earlier this month.
At least three top state party officials contested Ward’s “dubious” victory in the presidential race, citing “many questions” about the vote count. But on Saturday, Ward responded by saying that his victory has already ended and the state does not even have the ability to audit the votes in his electoral victory.
“We don’t have the structure to do an audit,” Ward told the KFYI radio show, The Conservative Circus with James T. Harris. “But we appreciate your contribution to making the elections bigger … The structure for an audit does not exist in our process, our procedures, our bylaws and in the bylaws.”
Bill Beard, the former president of the Pima County Republican Party, called for a recount of all state Republican disputes, including Ward’s mere 42-vote victory in last week’s election. In comparison, Biden defeated Trump in Arizona by 10,457 votes. Committee member Trey Terry criticized Ward in an interview on KTAR Radio on Friday in which he complained: “We must be the party of electoral integrity, and Kelli Ward makes an election that is the complete opposite … We need an audit . needs to be forensic. “
“It came to my attention that there were a significant number of irregularities, inconsistencies and errors during the election of state officials last Saturday, January 23, AZ GOP State Meeting,” Beard posted on social media on Thursday.
“Actually, we didn’t get those results until more than five days later, and now she says that no one can request an audit or file a complaint because we didn’t do it at the meeting. suspect, “Republican Party committee man Terry said on Friday.
On Saturday, Ward apparently defeated Arellano, who told Radio KTAR that, while he does not necessarily believe that there is intentional fraud behind his victory, Republican Party officials need to ensure confidence in his election results. He cited the discrepancies in the vote count that caused the 8th Congressional District candidate, Sandra Dowling, to be declared the winner of her dispute earlier this month. But a few hours later, Republican Party officials informed her that she did lose and rescinded her victory.
“We are waiting for an answer that establishes when, where and how [audit] process. I foresee that the state GOP will do a solid job here and will provide election officials across the state with an example of how to conduct a timely audit and how important ballot security and paper backups are, “said Arellano on Friday.
Ward on Friday responded to calls for an audit, saying: “Because no one disputed the election on Election Day, there were no complaints and there was actually a lot of unity claimed at that meeting. These are the results of the final, final results of that election. “
Perhaps hoping to divert attention from questions about his own election, Ward posted two videos to the Arizona Republican Party’s official YouTube account, which announced a new “full forensic audit” of Biden’s victory in November. She criticized Republican Party officials in Maricopa County for “failing at work” and praised Republican state senators for “finally getting to the bottom of what happened” in Trump’s defeat.
Ward announced that the Arizona state senate has hired his own company to review “paper ballot scans, analysis of them, looking at records, digitally judged ballots, which ones are there and which are not, looking at duplicate ballots. They will look at everything. “
Ward led the Republican Party of Arizona last week by publicly censoring Governor Doug Ducey, former Senator Jeff Flake, Cindy McCain and other Republicans who did not fully support their efforts to nullify Biden’s victory in Arizona.
Newsweek reached out to Ward and Arizona Republican Party officials on Saturday afternoon for further comment.
Screenshot: YouTube