Emails Reveal Problematic Double Standard For AZGOP’s Ward On Election Challenges 

Legislative District 15 is in Maricopa County and like all of the local legislative district parties, it had its own organizational meeting late in 2020. It elected its officers and its state committeeman in normal fashion.  Then there was a complaint from someone who lost their election that was taken to the state party, and the state party had its legal counsel send a rather aggressive email containing a list of demands to the local district.

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Lee Miller

Gentlemen,

The Chairman of the Republican Party of Arizona has received a complaint regarding the conduct of the recent LD 15 organizational meeting. The chair has directed us to review the election. So that we may resolve this matter as quickly as possible, please gather the following:

1. Current list of LD15 PC’s,
2. Current bylaws for LD 15,
3. Agenda for recent organizational meeting,
4. Rules adopted for the election of the new of the officers and state committee members,
5. Credentials report noting who attended in person and who voted by proxy,
6. Original proxies received by the Credentials Chair
7. All original ballots received for the election of officers and state committee members,
8. Tally sheets and/or tally reports for the election of officers and state committee members, and
9. Minutes of the organizational meeting.

If you can gather all of this paper for us and let us know it’s ready we’ll have someone come and pick it up. Please note that the only reason we have not included Brian Hummel on this email is that we don’t have an email address for him. We will appreciate it if you will forward this on. Thank you for your attention to this request. [View email here]

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For people following the current brawl over state committeemen trying to get an audit and recount of the AZGOP’s recent state meeting, and the resistance being offered by Chairwomen Kelli Ward and National Committeeman Tyler Bowyer, the list of demands made by the State Party in pursuit of their LD15 election review is remarkably similar and actually more exhaustive than that what state committeemen from all over the state are asking of the State Party.

According to Derrik Rochwalik, LD15’s Chairman, the district’s bylaws do not contain a process for an audit, nor do the bylaws for the County Party under whose jurisdiction the local district sits.  In that regard, his district’s situation mirrors the crux of Ward’s current stonewalling, who claims that there should be no audit because there is no such process in the party’s bylaws.  But Rochwalik notes that regardless of that detail, it was the stated legal position of the AZGOP that the LD election could and should be reviewed because there was a single complaint about it.

In fact, Ward sent an email to a concerned Precinct Committeeman on AZGOP email, assuring them should the AZGOP not have resolution, they may not respect the results of LD15’s election and they may not recognize LD15’s elected state committeemen, because they “…will not have had confirmation of a free, fair, and transparent election in that district.”  Ward even added her personal thoughts to her position, writing that “We are fighting fraud at the national and state level ans (sp) we certainly don’t want it inside our party.”
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On Dec 18, 2020, at 4:50 AM, Kelli Ward wrote:

FYI.

We are continuing to pursue this. Should we not have resolution, LD15 may not be seated at the statutory meeting of the state committee as we will not have confirmation of a free, fair, and transparent election in that district. We are fighting fraud at the national and state level ans we certainly don’t want it inside our party.

Warmly,
Kelli

Dr. Kelli Ward
Chairwoman
Republican Party of Arizona
@KelliWardAZ
602-957-7770

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LD 15 did not submit its documents to the State Party because the proper judge/jury of the matter was the County Party, but it did open up all of its paperwork for a review by the County Party, which reviewed it and confirmed that the election was properly done.  The County Party communicated this to the State Party in an email from new County Chairman Mickie Niland to Ward, and the district’s election results were upheld.
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From: Mickie Niland
Date: Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 12:56 PM
Subject: LD15 State Committeeman 2020 List Review
To: Kelli Ward

To Chairman Kelli Ward
CC Lee Miller AZGOP Attorney
Greg Safsen AZGOP Executive Director
Shia Grooman AZGOP Staff

Chairman Kelli Ward,

This email is in response to your request to review LD15 Organizational Meeting outcomes.

Final outcome: The State Committeeman Slate for LD15 remains as originally submitted. (Since the original submission, there have been the two removals and appointments that were properly carried out after the original submission, those actions also stand.)

REMAINDER REMOVED FOR SPACE

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It is clear that the AZGOP and Kelli Ward believe that, regardless of what written bylaws require or are silent on, an election complaint should result in a close inspection of all participant registrations and all original proxies and paper ballots, for the purposes of recounting and verifying election results.  And that failing that, the results of the election may not have to be respected.

Unless that election is Kelli Ward’s election, in which case, as she told KFYI’s James T Harris, there is “no procedure, process, rule that allows for it to be done, and you certainly don’t allow a challenger who lost an election to demand something that they don’t have the right to, and we don’t have the responsibility for providing.”