Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward has a new book out revealing what happened behind the scenes with the independent Maricopa County audit of the 2020 presidential election. Ward was one of the first to call for an audit, and was heavily involved in it every step of the way. “Justified: The Story of America’s Audit” is the dramatic saga of how it all went down. As someone who was on the ground in Arizona, close to the polling and privy to intel from the top Republican operatives, Ward believed that an audit was justified since it appeared extremely unlikely that Joe Biden could have won Arizona.
“The state is still very much socially and fiscally conservative — deep red,” she summarized after experiencing the election and audit. “I believed that if every legal vote was counted and every illegal vote was rejected, President Trump would be the uncontested winner of the election.” Ward said the election was far more important than most people realized, “Many people have told me that as Arizona goes, the country goes.”
Ward laid out the case that Trump was leading in Arizona before the election. “It was clear that with nearly two weeks until Election Day, President Trump was in a strong position for re-election, as were Republicans up and down the ballot.” Far more Republicans than Democrats were registered to vote in the six months leading up to the election. “We saw a noticeable shift among newly registered voters that were choosing to identify with the Republican Party in Arizona,” she said. The GOP contacted two-thirds more voters than they did in the 2016 election. In contrast, “Biden’s team openly avoided on-the-ground work because of COVID.”
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