Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward Pushes for Election Audits in Each of State's 15 Counties
Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward is calling for election audits in every county in the state, even after an audit of Maricopa County upheld the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Some Republicans have insisted that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election due to widespread voter fraud in battleground states like Arizona, even though no substantive evidence has been presented to support the allegations. Audits have also been called in several other states over such unproven claims.
In a new video entitled "Special Update," Ward claims an analysis of election results in Pima County found inconsistencies. Pima is the state's second-largest county and home to Tucson, a Democratic stronghold.
Ward said there should be an audit of not only Pima County but every county in the state.
"I've been asking for full audits of all 15 of Arizona's counties," she said. "We the people will not back down. We will not waver."
The push for more audits comes days after Trump also called for a review in Pima County. In a statement released October 15, the former president claimed that an analysis of mail-in ballots indicates there were "fictitious votes" cast in the county.
He said that either a new election should take place, or the election results should be decertified and the Republican candidate declared the winner.
The allegations of fraud were dismissed by Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, who said the county conducted a "free, fair, secure, and accurate election."
"The results were publicly audited via hand count by the County's Republican and Democratic parties, and the results were certified by the Pima County Board of Supervisors and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey," Huckelberry said.
Republicans successfully pushed for an audit in the state's largest county, Maricopa County. However, the review found Biden won by an even larger margin than the initial vote count. It found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Still, Trump went on to falsely claim that the audit found he won the county.
The audit was widely condemned and mocked by election experts and many of Maricopa County's own Republican leaders. One election expert, Larry Moore, criticized the Cyber Ninjas, the group that conducted the review, as having "zero experience in election audits."
"Having zero experience in election audits, the Ninjas announcement that they had confirmed, to a high degree of accuracy, the election results of the second-largest county in the country is, we believe, laughable," he wrote.
Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Arizona since Bill Clinton in 1996. Long seen as a GOP state, Arizona gave Biden 49.36 percent of the vote, compared to Trump's 49.06 percent. Growth in Arizona's capital Phoenix and Biden's strength in suburban areas propelled him to victory in the state that has trended leftward.
Republicans have called for audits in other states Biden narrowly carried such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—and even in states that Trump won, like Texas and Florida.
Newsweek reached out to the Arizona Republican and Democratic parties for comment Sunday afternoon but had not heard back by publication. This story will be updated with any response.
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