Trump-boosting Arizona GOP chief Kelli Ward’s narrow victory in doubt with calls for audit

“This isn’t about the chairman’s race,” Sergio Arellano, the Arizona businessman who came in second place to Ward in their weekend election face-off, said in a written statement obtained by the Arizona Republic. “This is about election integrity.”

Kim Owens, a GOP consultant serving as Arellano’s spokesperson, said irregularities in the voting process demanded an audit. The report said doubts about the GOP chief race were raised after the winner of another contest, for an at-large committee member position, was told that she had lost. In a separate statement, Arellano claimed that he “fully” expects the audit to confirm the results of his contest, but the “reversal” of that other race prompted “a number of committeemen” to raise concerns and ask him to request an audit “because only a candidate for party office can do so.”

“This is not about one person or one race. It’s about the integrity of our elections,” Owens said. “With 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.”

Owens also said Arellano and two other Republicans have requested an audit, including witnesses, to take place on Thursday, but she did not provide the letters to the outlet.

Ward has not addressed the rising demands yet on her typically active Twitter page. Representatives for the Arizona GOP did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Washington Examiner on Wednesday evening.

“Serious questions about how @AZGOP carried out elections/resolution votes at Saturday’s annual meeting. Longtime party member: ‘Most unsecure election I’ve ever seen in my entire life. No election integrity in entire process,'” tweeted journalist Brahm Resnik of 12 News, an NBC affiliate serving Phoenix.

Ward is a former state senator who failed in her bid to defeat the late Sen. John McCain in the 2016 GOP primary. She also was beaten by Martha McSally in the 2018 GOP primary in the U.S. Senate race to succeed retiring Jeff Flake. She was elected chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party in 2019.

After the 2020 election, Ward and Republicans in her state snagged national headlines with a wave of lawsuits challenging Arizona’s results. Eight lawsuits in recent months have been rejected by judges. Arizona went for President Biden over Trump. It was the first time a Democrat carried the state since former President Bill Clinton in 1996. The Republicans also lost a Senate seat to Democrat Mark Kelly.

“You know what could have prevented this? #ElectionIntegrity and full transparent investigations into 2020 fraud. Audits, eyes on paper ballots, full audit of ALL digitally adjudicated and all duplicated ballots, full evaluation of Dominion machines. Remember: Democrats refused,” Ward tweeted on Jan. 6, the day when U.S. lawmakers met to certify Biden’s victory, and a violent siege of the U.S. Capitol led to five deaths.

Also on Wednesday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve an independent forensic audit of ballot tabulation equipment. Republicans, including Ward, have been pushing for such an audit of Dominion Voting Systems machinery for months, although they wanted the board to comply with subpoenas from the state legislature. Ward is one of more than 100 people who recently received a cease-and-desist letter and demand to preserve documents from Dominion over claims that the company’s machines rigged the 2020 election.

Other than Ward’s close GOP chair victory during the state party’s annual meeting over the weekend, Arizona Republicans voted to censure Gov. Doug Ducey, Flake, and Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. McCain, after the trio of Republicans either did not support Trump’s bid to overturn the election results or endorsed Biden before the election. Ducey was also censured Saturday for imposing COVID-19 restrictions in the state, with rules that GOP lawmakers argued violated Arizona’s constitution while accusing the governor of wielding “dictatorial powers.”

Meghan McCain, the daughter of John and Cindy McCain and a conservative co-host of ABC’s The View, reacted to news about demands for an audit of Ward’s victory with a mocking meme. “Ahahahahahahahaahahahaha!!!!!!!!” she tweeted.