PHOENIX — For months, Arizona Republican Party leaders have been asking for a forensic audit of Arizona’s presidential election. Then they held an election of their own, and it didn’t go so well.
“It became apparent the folks running the election weren’t taking some of the things seriously,” William Beard said.
Beard is the State Committeeman from LD 9. He is a long-time election integrity advocate.
State party elections are often raucous, messy events. That was the case when State Republicans met to vote for their party leaders and legislative district committeemen in Phoenix a week ago.
“As we moved forward through the meeting, it became apparent certain basic steps of verifying an individual wasn’t eligible to vote weren’t really checked on a consistent basis,” Beard said.
Beard was supposed to oversee the vote count for the party chair, but he wasn’t allowed. He was supporting Sergio Arellano, a Pima County businessman, who was trying to unseat Kelli Ward.
Arellano lost by a slim margin.
Beard and at least six other party members have challenged the results. In one race, a candidate who was announced a winner, was later told they lost. Beard has called for an audit, not unlike the one Kelli Ward wants in what was a failed effort to overturn Arizona’s Presidential election.
“We need to mind our own business inside the party before we go talking about what should happen in the larger population,” Beard said.
On KFYI’s Conservative Circus with James T. Harris, Friday reelected Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward said the party is not able to do an audit.
Nearly a week after the election, the party finally sent out a list of who won Thursday night.
The list was updated 30 minutes later after wrongly stating a person won when they actually lost.
The party said since none of the challenges occurred during the meeting, none would be considered.
A decision that William Beard says violates the party’s own by-laws passed just last week saying candidates had ten days to challenge their election results.
