중요외신 AZGOP chair eyes nullification of presidential election in new lawsuit a state law permitting any voter in the state to challenge election results on

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AZGOP chair eyes nullification of presidential election in new lawsuit

By

 Jeremy Duda

 -

November 25, 2020

Last Updated: November 25, 2020 8:51 pm

Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward speaks at an April 24, 2019, press conference supporting an increase in the state sales tax to provide more funds to education. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward wants a judge to allow her to examine ballots to determine if any were improperly counted in an effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, though she hasn’t shown any evidence of the theoretical problems she’s alleging.

Ward plans to bring suit under a state law permitting any voter in the state to challenge election results on grounds of misconduct by election officials, illegal votes or if the loser is declared the winner through an “erroneous count of votes.” She is suing in her capacity as an individual and as an elector for President Donald Trump.

It is the latest challenge from state Republicans to the results of the election, which Biden won by about 10,500 votes. This is the fifth lawsuit involving Arizona’s election results and the second involving Ward. 

According to the proposed complaint, the chairwoman will request that “the Court declare that the certificate of election of the Biden electors is of no further legal force or effect,” and “that the election is annulled and set aside” in accordance with a state law permitting a judge to reject the outcome of an election if a lawsuit shows that result to be improper. If an inspection of ballots proves Trump got the highest number of votes, Ward wants the judge to declare his electors as the winners.

But before a judge can nullify the results of the presidential election in Arizona, Ward must show that enough votes were improper to warrant such a drastic result. And in order to help her show that, she’s asking a judge to allow her to examine ballots while she prepares to file her lawsuit after the state canvass of the 2020 general election is certified on Monday.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner will hold a hearing in the matter on Monday at 10:30 a.m.

When people vote by early ballot, they must sign the envelope they use to mail or deliver those ballots. Election workers compare the signatures to the signatures on file for those voters to ensure that they match. 

Political parties can appoint observers to watch ballot counting, signature verification and other election-related activities. Ward’s lawsuit alleges election officials kept observers 10 to 12 feet away from the computers where they were verifying signatures, which was too far away to see the signatures themselves. When observers complained, election workers let them use binoculars, the lawsuit stated, but the observers still weren’t able to read the signatures.

Attorney Jack Wilenchik, who represents Ward, argued in the proposed lawsuit that the refusal to allow observers to more closely examine the signature-verification process constitutes misconduct by election officials.

“Because Arizona’s method of proving identity for mail-in early voters relies entirely on signature verification, and because election officials did not allow legal observation of signature verification to occur — potentially allowing falsely or insufficiently verified ballots to be counted — then the result of the election is fundamentally uncertain,” Wilenchik wrote.