AZ GOP Chair Who Peddled Trump’s Voter Fraud Lies Faces Demand For Audit Of Her Election

on August 28, 2018 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward acknowledges supporters as she arrives to give her concession speech at an election night event on August 28, 2018 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

There’s some irony for ya.

Recently reelected Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, who enthusiastically boosted ex-President Donald Trump’s bogus “Stop the Steal” scheme and tried to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in her state, now finds her own election results being called into question.

Sergio Arellano, one of Ward’s challengers who lost by a razor-thin margin of 42 votes in the election on Saturday, is pushing for an audit of the results after a candidate for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District’s member-at-large committee, who was initially declared the winner of her race, was later told that she had lost after an error was detected.

Arellano stated in a Facebook post early Thursday morning that his request was about ensuring “election integrity,” not undoing the race results.

“I fully expect any audit to confirm the results that were announced at the State Meeting,” he said.

However, the error in the district race “created an environment where a number of state committeemen are raising concerns and asking me to ask for an audit because only a candidate for party office can do so,” the former candidate added.

Kim Owens, Arellano’s spokesperson, told AZ Central that “[w]ith the absence of the tapes from the machines or any documentation of where votes came from, and in most races, a lack of numbers, of tallies, we need to see evidence that everything is as it should be.”

The state party did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.

Ward was one of Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers in his crusade against the 2020 election results. The GOP leader regularly parroted false claims alleging “abnormalities” in the race and attempted to bring a bogus lawsuit in front of the Supreme Court that aimed to throw out ballots.

The Arizona GOP has gone hard for Trump under Ward’s leadership to the point where its Twitter account asked if supporters were willing to “die” for the then-president amid his effort to overturn the election.

Latest News
53
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. Thoughts and prayers

  2. Avatar for pine pine says:

    " The Arizona GOP has gone hard for Trump under Ward’s leadership to the point where its Twitter account asked if supporters were willing to “die for the then-president amid his effort to overturn the election."

    That is what you would call"going hard". . "Willing to die ".

  3. Grudge match to the death. Only viable solution.

  4. OK…first off, WTF is that PICTURE??? They look like ‘handmaidens’…and secondly, my Mama had it right…what goes around comes around. SOMETIMES it comes quicker than others.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

47 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for bobatkinson Avatar for manhattan123 Avatar for cervantes Avatar for dave_adams Avatar for george_spiggott Avatar for christianhankel Avatar for clearwater Avatar for iamwil Avatar for tao Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for pine Avatar for fiftygigs Avatar for darrtown Avatar for docd Avatar for lizzymom Avatar for news247 Avatar for nycabj Avatar for maximus Avatar for euglena4056 Avatar for howardbeale Avatar for bitinginsect Avatar for txlawyer Avatar for CaptainObvious

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: