Audit The AZ GOP! (Updated)

What’s the old saying about people who live in glass houses?

The Arizona Republic reports Republicans demand audit of Kelli Ward’s narrow win for Arizona GOP chair:

After months of sounding the alarm on what she claimed was a stolen presidential election, Kelli Ward is facing questions about her own reelection Saturday as Arizona Republican Party chair.

UPDATE In race for @AZGOP chair, Sergio Arellano finished 2nd to @kelliwardaz by a reported 42 votes. He’s calling for audit of all election results for party offices based on reversal of winner in one race. pic.twitter.com/I8VaGnd63b

— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik) January 28, 2021

Sergio Arellano, the southern Arizona businessman who narrowly lost to Ward in a runoff, has asked state party officials for an audit of the election results, said Kim Owens, a Republican consultant who is serving as his spokeswoman.

So far, that hasn’t happened, adding to a growing sense of angst among GOP activists that the election had problems.

“This isn’t about the chairman’s race, this is about election integrity,” Arellano said in a written statement provided by Owens to The Arizona Republic.

In a statement issued hours later to the newspaper, Arellano said he did not expect the audit to lead to a reversal of wins for Ward and others.

Neither Ward nor other state party officials could be immediately reached for comment.

Doubts about the results of the chair’s race started to swirl after the announced winner in another race, for the at-large committee member from the 8th Congressional District, was informed she had lost.

Arellano said that error “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. So I’ve done that and we’re waiting for a response that lays out the when, where, and how of that process. I anticipate the State GOP will do a solid job here and provide election officials around the state with an example of how to conduct a timely audit and how important ballot security and paper backups are.”

The elections played out Saturday at the party’s annual meeting, an event that was closed to most of the media and drew rare national attention because of the deep division over whether Ward should guide the party for another two years after Arizona voters backed President Joe Biden and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.

[In an unusual move, the Arizona Republican Party barred most reporters from attending the election portion of the statutorily required meeting. The election took place away from public view at Dream City Church.]

Owens said that on Tuesday, Arellano and the two other Republicans who challenged Ward, sent another request asking for the audit to take place on Thursday. That request, which called for witnesses, had not generated a response as of Wednesday evening, she said. Owens declined to provide the letters.

Ward, a controversial figure who gained national attention for claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, won her reelection bid by 42 votes after the election went to a runoff against Arellano. Trump endorsed her reelection.

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

The race for chair isn’t the only one in question. Sandra Dowling, who ran for an at-large committee position in the 8th Congressional District, initially was announced as a winner, she said. She had left the meeting by the time the winners were announced.

“I start getting phone calls from everybody and their neighbor saying ‘Congratulations, Sandra, you won, you won, you won,’” she recalled.

Ward told her friend after the meeting that Dowling had not won and blamed the mistake on “human error,” she said.

The Washington Post adds Kelli Ward led a push to overturn Biden’s victory. Now her own win as Arizona GOP chair is being questioned.:

Sergio Arellano, a Pima County small business owner who lost to Ward by 42 votes, requested a recount of all state party races on Monday, he told The Washington Post. More than two days later, he said, Arizona state party leaders — who report to Ward — have not yet scheduled the audit, which was first reported by the Arizona Republic.

“It shouldn’t be a big deal. If her core No. 1 issue is election integrity, then it should be a nonissue,” he said in an interview. “It should be transparent, expeditious, and let’s move on.”

Neither Ward nor Greg Safsten, the Arizona Republican Party’s executive director, immediately responded to messages from The Post early on Thursday.

Arellano, who served on the advisory board for President Donald Trump’s Latino campaign arm, emphasized that he does not expect a recount to change the results of his race against Ward. But after dozens of other Arizona Republicans reached out to him to point out potential issues in at least two other races, he said he had to ask for a recount.

* * *

When Trump lost to Biden in November, she helped Trump mount a baseless campaign claiming that the presidential election had been rigged.

[Ward] sent out fundraising mailers describing a “stolen” election and offered up unsubstantiated claims of hidden precinct data. At her direction, the Arizona GOP sued to overturn the state’s election results, in a case that was later dismissed by the state Supreme Court for a lack of evidence.

She sent out fundraising mailers describing a “stolen” election and offered up unsubstantiated claims of hidden precinct data. At her direction, the Arizona GOP sued to overturn the state’s election results, in a case that was later dismissed by the state Supreme Court for a lack of evidence.

As a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, seeking to keep Congress from certifying Biden’s win, Ward kept going. “Send the elector choice back to the legislatures,” she wrote on Twitter during the siege, also claiming at a rally that the rioters were fakes trying to undermine Trump.

At Trump’s urging, she announced that week she would run for reelection as state party chair.

* * *

At a Phoenix church on Saturday, hundreds gathered for a chaotic party meeting where many were not wearing masks, The Post reported. A majority of members voted to censure Ducey, Flake and Cindy McCain, all of whom had previously broken with Trump.

Ward presented her candidacy as the only option to keep the Arizona GOPfrom going “back to the dark days before Trump,” adding: “The president is watching today’s race very closely.”

She narrowly won reelection, beating Arellano in a runoff by a margin of 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent. But after the stated winner of another race was later told she had lost, party members began to raise questions about the elections process.

Arellano said that Sandra Dowling, who had run for an at-large committee member seat from the state’s 8th Congressional District, was initially announced as the winner of her election during the convention.

“I start getting phone calls from everybody and their neighbor saying ‘Congratulations, Sandra, you won, you won, you won,’ ” Dowling recalled to the Republic, only to note that the victory had been pulled back hours later. Ward later blamed the mix-up on “human error,” the newspaper reported.

Following that news, Arellano was flooded with calls through the weekend from other state party members encouraging him to ask for a recount of all races. He said the party’s bylaws only allow candidates for chair to file such a request, and added that another race resulting in a three-way tie had gone unresolved.

Ward appoints a group tasked with counting ballots, Arellano said, though he was able to send an observer to watch the count. Given that she emphasized election integrity in her reelection campaign, he said an audit is a chance for Ward to prove that such an idea is being put into practice.

“So, I have no doubt that everything will be as advertised,” he said. “Right?”

Audit! Recount! Do-over Vote! Stop The Steal!

UPDATED: Something to hide, Kelli? If the count was as you say it was the audit should match the official results. Kelli Ward rejects call for audit of GOP party elections. You know, the way the Maricopa County Elections Department audit was a 100 percent match.

What’s good for the goose is good for … well, just the goose, apparently https://t.co/JxRS5yLZ7c

— Jeremy Duda (@jeremyduda) January 30, 2021

It's official. We completed our hand count audit and had a 100% match! Thank you to all 3 Maricopa County political parties, who appointed members to participate! pic.twitter.com/JhBcPYWhY3

— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 9, 2020