Last Updated on May 7, 2021
Dr Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona GOP, slammed the recent interference by Biden’s Department of Justice in the Maricopa County forensic audit as being completely political.
As the forensic audit is currently taking place in Maricopa County, Democrats have been making moves to stop the audit from taking place, or at the very least place a number of restrictions on the audit. In a video on Thursday, Dr Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republicans, detailed exactly the efforts that are being undertaken by the Democrats, sparked off by Katie Hobbs, the current Secretary of State.
Hobbs, Ward noted, had sent attorneys to monitor the audit in Maricopa from “well-known partisan attack groups,” like the Brennan Center, and Project Democracy, and even people who had claimed to be press, to observe and attempt to discredit the audit. After sending out a six page document to the audit team, with a number of spurious claims, Hobbs began “conniving” with the Biden-run Department of Justice to attempt to bring further monitoring or legal action against the Arizona audit, Ward said.
READ MORE: Maricopa County Officials REFUSE To Turn Over Subpoenaed Devices Used In 2020 Election
“Hobbs has never had any interest in observing the audit,” Ward claimed. “She’s a partisan hack using tax-payer dollars to do Democrat partisan bidding to try to end the State Senate’s audit,” claiming that her actions have sparked off “what is probably the most serious assault by the Democrats [on the Maricopa audit] to date.”
BREAKING NEWS: Democrats want US Department of Justice to interfere in audit, send federal monitors. Democrat lies may lead to DOJ legal challenge of AZ Court-approved right of AZ Senate to continue audit. AZGOP Chairwoman @kelliwardaz reports on #AmericasAudit #FinishTheAudit pic.twitter.com/uppREWBpul
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) May 6, 2021
The Department of Justice on Wednesday had sent a letter to the Arizona Senate, discussing a number of apparent “concerns,” including the security of the ballots. The letter cited “a number of reports suggesting that the ballots, elections systems, and election materials that are the subject of the Maricopa County audit are no longer under the ultimate control of state and local elections officials, are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors at an insecure facility, and are at risk of being lost, stolen, altered, compromised or destroyed.”
Ward dismissed the supposed “lack of security” as ludicrous, noting that there were “dozens of security cameras monitoring the audit at all times, and 19 armed guards protecting the premises and the ballots” from harm. The Arizona GOP Chair instead suggested the Department of Justice should look into the security at the Maricopa tabulation centre. As National File reported, orange “external devices,” appearing to be portable hard drives, were removed from the vote tabulating area every night by either election officials in the county or Dominion Voting Systems employees.
The letter from the Department of Justice further claimed that Cyber Ninjas, the company hired by the Arizona Senate to conduct the audit, had engaged in harassment of minority voters, and that counters had engaged in ballot tampering, with Ward noting that all the claims were simply hearsay, and had all been dimissed by the courts due to a lack of evidence. “It all begs the question,” Ward said. “What are the Democrats afraid of, and what are they hiding?”:
Why can’t the American people take a look at an election? Review all the ballots, make sure the machines were operating properly, and that there was no tampering involved. Why is transparency such a problem for them? Why won’t they join with us and participate in the audit, rather than trying their best to end it at all costs? Unfortunately, we know the answers, and that’s why we cannot, we will not, be intimidated and we must finish America’s audit.
Ward was joined in her slamming of the “politicised” Justice Department by Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers. “‘Justice’ Department – you need to stay in your lane,” Rogers tweeted following the publishing of the letter. “Do not touch Arizona ballots or machines unless you want to spend time in an Arizona prison.”
'Justice' Department – you need to stay in your lane. Do not touch Arizona ballots or machines unless you want to spend time in an Arizona prison.https://t.co/W7l3WhFsjt
— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) May 6, 2021
