A pair of Republican activists sued the Arizona Republican Party and recently reelected Chairwoman Kelli Ward following her refusal to conduct an audit of the results and procedures used for the state GOP’s January elections.
The plaintiffs in the complaint, William Beard and Sandra Dowling, filed their lawsuit in Maricopa Superior Court on Friday, asking a judge to require the state party to explain why it should not conduct an audit of Ward’s election.
Tucson businessman Sergio Arellano, who came in second place in the race to lead the state GOP, requested a recount in January after she won the election by only 42 votes in a runoff.
Since then, more than a dozen Arizona Republican legislators have called on Ward to conduct an audit of her election. Ward has argued the outcome is “final” because there were no attempts to contest the results on the day of the election.
ARIZONA GOP MEMBERS WANT AUDIT OF KELLI WARD’S REELECTION AS PARTY CHAIR
Attorney Jack Wilenchik, representing the state Republican Party, said Friday he had not yet seen the complaint but called the lawsuit a “publicity” move.
Wilenchik told the Washington Examiner the case would be dismissed because it targets Ward as a defendant, adding Ward does not have the sole ability to determine whether to conduct an audit.
“They need to go to the state committee,” Wilenchik said, adding the committee has over 100 members, and Ward is only one executive officer.
Wilenchik said the appropriate way for the plaintiffs to make their calls for the party to audit its election would be to “lobby members of the State Committee, which again, is a large group, to call for a meeting to order a recount if that’s what they’re inclined to do.”
“I don’t know why they’re barking up the wrong tree still. Unfortunately, now, it sounds like it’s going to cause some lawyers’ fees for the party. But we will, of course, defend the lawsuit, and get rid of it,” Wilemchik added.
Despite her refusal to audit her own election, Ward and members of the Arizona GOP have echoed former President Donald Trump’s election fraud accusations, calling for audits of Maricopa County’s presidential election results, which are to be conducted by the state’s GOP-led Senate.
The county has conducted two separate audits, finding no irregularities in election equipment or materials, and invited Republicans and Democrats to participate in the process.
Still, Arizona Senate members pressed forward and filed two subpoenas demanding the county, which includes Phoenix, to grant access to election materials from the November 2020 presidential race.
A judge ruled in February that the subpoenas filed by the state Senate Republicans were “legal and enforceable,” after the largely Republican county election board attempted to thwart sending election materials over to the Senate.
Senate President Karen Fann said this week she had narrowed the search for a firm to do a full audit of the county’s 2020 election, which tabulated 2.1 million ballots.
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The Washington Examiner contacted Ward but did not immediately receive a response.
