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PHOENIX (AP) – County election officials agreed on Wednesday to expand their inspection of some Phoenix subway ballots that are being contested in a Republican lawsuit aimed at reversing Joe Biden’s victory in the State.
Arizona Republican Party President Kelli Ward, who has filed a lawsuit to challenge election results, searches for irregularities among the nearly 28,000 Maricopa County ballots that were duplicated by election officials because voters’ past ballots were damaged or could not be compiled. She called for a broader scrutiny of the ballots after a court-ordered inspection of 100 duplicate ballots on Tuesday revealed two instances in which votes cast for Trump were overturned in the duplication process.
Before the judge could rule on Ward’s request at a hearing, the county offered to review 2,500 additional duplicate ballots.
“We had a great election on November 3, and we are happy that people are taking a closer look,” said Tom Liddy, an attorney representing county officials. “We have nothing to hide.”
Ward’s attorneys say inspection of 100 ballots revealed that one person’s vote for Trump was ultimately recorded as a Biden vote and another person’s vote for Trump was overturned when the ballot The reproduced ballot contained votes for both the incumbent Republican candidate and a registered candidate.
Bruce Spiva, an attorney for the 11 Biden, Arizona voters who were sued by Ward, questioned whether the error rate for duplicate ballots would be so high that it could presumably change the way the state has voted in the presidential race.
Roopali Desai, a lawyer representing Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, said Ward’s trial is a “fishing expedition” that makes no allegations of pervasive fraud or willful misconduct.
A trial is scheduled for Thursday in Ward’s trial.
State election results were certified on Monday, showing Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes. The Electoral College is due to meet on December 14.
No evidence of voter fraud or voter fraud has emerged during this election season in Arizona. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr said the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread electoral fraud that would change the election outcome.
Even though Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said earlier this week that Arizona’s election was well run as he certified the November 3 results, many GOP politicians in the state have mostly been silent. or slow to express confidence in the election results that gave Biden a victory in Arizona.
Ward’s lawsuit claims some suburbs on the southeastern edge of Maricopa County had unusually high numbers of duplicate ballots – and that election results in that region were “strongly inconsistent” with voter registration and historical voting data. Hobbs’ office said there were 104 duplicate ballots in the area in question.
Four previous election challenges in Maricopa County have been dismissed, including one filed by the Arizona Republican Party seeking to determine whether the voting machines had been hacked.
A new election challenge filed Wednesday by Trump voters in Arizona alleges there have been more than 400,000 illegal ballots counted in the state and criticizes voting equipment used in the Phoenix subway. The lawsuit was filed by Conservative Firebrand attorney Sidney Powell, who was removed from Trump’s legal team.
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