Arizona Supreme Court tosses GOP chairwoman Ward’s voting lawsuit
Dec 8, 2020, 5:56 PM | Updated: 8:25 pm
(AP Photo/Bob Christie, File)
(AP Photo/Bob Christie, File)
PHOENIX – An Arizona Supreme Court judge tossed out Arizona GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward’s voting lawsuit on Tuesday that sought to reverse the certified results of the state’s presidential election.
The Supreme Court affirmed a previous ruling that the Maricopa County judge did not abuse his power by denying the request to continue the hearing and permit additional inspection of more ballots.
The court noted that the lawsuit failed to present evidence of misconduct, illegal votes or any form of voter fraud that would undermine the results of the election.
It also confirmed that the state’s 11 electoral votes will go to President-elect Joe Biden.
“While today’s decision is not what those who value and recognize the importance of election transparency and integrity were seeking, rest assured, the fight to restore that corroded confidence will continue,” Ward said in part of a statement tweeted by the Arizona Republican Party Tuesday night.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled on Friday that Ward failed to prove fraud in her challenge of election results in metro Phoenix and that evidence presented at trial wouldn’t reverse President Donald Trump’s loss.
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As part of those proceedings, a court-ordered sampling of 1,626 duplicated ballots found that Trump lost seven votes due to errors in ballot processing.
Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County’s director of Election Day and emergency voting, said in court Thursday that Trump could have lost 103 votes if the error rate were extrapolated across all 27,800 duplicated ballots in the county, nowhere near enough to change the outcome.
Ward’s lawsuit is one of the six election challenges in Maricopa County that were dismissed, including one by the state GOP that sought to determine whether voting machines were hacked.
One election challenge remains pending in Arizona.
A lawsuit filed in federal court on behalf of Trump’s proposed electors in Arizona seeks to decertify the state’s election results and alleges its election systems have security flaws that let election workers and foreign countries manipulate results.
A judge is expected to issue a decision in that case by Wednesday.
On Nov. 30, Arizona’s two top-ranking Republican elected officials, Gov. Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich, signed off on Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ election certification.
The certified results showed Biden winning Arizona by more than 10,000 votes to claim the state’s 11 electoral votes. As it stands, Biden will win the presidency by a 306-232 margin when the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14. Biden’s inauguration is set for Jan. 20.
Biden won in Maricopa County, the state’s most-populous region, by more than 45,000 votes in becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Arizona since 1996.
U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has said the Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
