Arizona GOP: Kelli Ward rejects calls for election audit, including victory



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“We don’t have the structure to be able to do an audit,” she said on KFYI’s radio show “The Conservative Circus with James T. Harris,” adding: “But we welcome of their contribution to enlarge the elections. “

She added that the structure of an audit “does not exist in our process, our procedures, our statutes, in the law”.

Ward, one of the strongest supporters of former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, said not only that an audit was not possible, but that the calls in this matter were pushed as a means of attacking it.

She argued that the only people demanding an audit are Sergio Arellano – a small business owner in Tucson who challenged Ward for the post of state party premier – and people who were part of his campaign.

Arellano did not respond to CNN’s request for a response to Ward on Friday.

Last weekWard won a second term as the state party president, beating Arellano by 3 percentage points. Arellano on Thursday requested an audit of the votes cast in the Arizona GOP presidential race and other party elections.

“I anticipate that the state GOP will do a solid job here and provide state election officials with an example of how to conduct a timely audit and the importance of ballot security and ballot security. paper backups, ”Arellano said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Arizona Republicans grapple with party's future

He claimed that a “reversal of reported results” in another party race prompted “a number of state committee members” to raise concerns and reach out to him to ask for an audit. Sandra Dowling was announced the winner of a candidacy for the Arizona 8th Congressional District General Membership Committee, but the victory was withdrawn due to a mistake.

During the radio interview, Ward continued to attack the media, saying that the stories about the eventual audit were trying to “gin up something that just doesn’t exist” and that “it was all over the top. from the edge “with the election.

Ward’s tenure as party president was defined by his unwavering support for Trump, having repeatedly backed his maneuvers to overturn presidential results, including in Arizona, which Joe Biden won by more than 10,000 voice.

The former vice president became the second Democrat since Harry Truman in 1948 to win Arizona in 2020. Following Biden’s victory, Ward lashed out at some Republicans who supported the new president, including Cindy McCain, widow of the late Senator John McCain, and former Republican Senator Jeff Flake.

CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.



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