Arizona GOP Chair Takes Voter Fraud Lawsuit To Supreme Court
Topline
Arizona Republican Party chairwoman Kelli Ward will appeal a lawsuit alleging voter fraud and attempting to overturn the state’s election results to the U.S. Supreme Court, the chairwoman said Friday, marking the third Republican-led challenge to President-elect Joe Biden’s win that the court will weigh in on as the Electoral College vote rapidly approaches.
Kelli Ward at an election night event on August 28, 2018 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Ralph … [+]
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Key Facts
Ward filed a lawsuit in Arizona state court that alleged widespread issues with the vote count, including issues with how mail-in ballot signatures are verified and issues with ballots that are duplicated so they can be read by a tabulation machine, arguing these errors resulted in votes for President Donald Trump not getting counted or votes flipping from Trump to Biden.
Ward alleges that if the ballots at issue are allowed to be examined, the inspection could find that there are enough ballots with errors to overturn Biden’s win—though after a small subset of ballots were allowed to be examined, officials extrapolated that a statewide inspection would likely add fewer than 200 ballots to Trump’s vote total, while Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.
The GOP chair’s lawsuit was struck down in both Arizona’s Superior Court and Supreme Court, with the state Supreme Court finding Ward’s case did not provide any evidence of “misconduct” or “illegal votes” or “establish any degree of fraud or a sufficient error rate that would undermine the certainty of the election results.”
In her petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ward alleged the lower courts did not give Republicans enough time to inspect ballots and prove “uncounted” or “flipped” votes for Trump because they wanted to resolve the case by the “safe harbor” deadline on Dec. 8 and when the Electoral College meets Dec. 14.
Ward is asking the Supreme Court to declare that the safe harbor deadline, which ensures states’ election totals cannot be challenged by Congress if submitted by that date, and Electoral College vote are “unconstitutional restrictions” for resolving election disputes in state court, and to send the case back to the lower courts with enough time for Ward to inspect the ballots as she wants.
Crucial Quote
“Why does this need to go to the Supreme Court? Well, simply because we have not had due process…which is time to be able to make a case, do discovery and hold an entire hearing,” Ward said in a video message Friday, saying the state court judge “set unrealistic deadlines” by trying to resolve the case by the safe harbor deadline.
Tangent
Arizona Republicans have become fiercely divided by the election results, as some, like Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, have accepted Biden’s win, while others like Ward are actively fighting against it. Ward told Ducey on Twitter to “#STHU”, or “shut the hell up,” in response to the governor standing by the state’s vote count, for instance, to which Ducey later responded, “I think what I would say is the feeling’s mutual to her, and practice what you preach.”
Key Background
Ward’s Supreme Court appeal comes as the high court is already considering a controversial attempt by Texas to challenge the election results in four battleground states, and after the Supreme Court previously rejected a Pennsylvania suit opposing that state’s results Tuesday. Republicans have repeatedly made clear they want to take their election challenges to the Supreme Court, hoping the court’s 6-3 conservative tilt will ultimately throw the election to Trump. The Trump campaign and GOP’s post-election legal strategy to challenge Biden’s win has been overwhelmingly unsuccessful even with conservative judges, however, and Republicans have so far netted more than 50 court losses and only one minor win.
What To Watch For
Ward is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit in Arizona led by former Trump legal advisor Sidney Powell, which has failed in district court but is already being appealed. Powell has suggested she may attempt to take her legal challenge, which includes four separate battleground state lawsuits, to the U.S. Supreme Court as well.
Further Reading
Arizona Supreme Court rejects GOP effort to overturn election results, affirms Biden win in state (AZ Central)
GOP poll watchers testify about problems with duplicate ballots; fewer than 200 votes may be at stake (AZ Central)
Arizona GOP Asks If Republicans Are Ready To Die For Trump’s Voter Fraud Crusade (Forbes)
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Forbes can be found here ***
