Grand Canyon Times

A hearing has been set for Nov. 30 to allow for Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward to argue a petition in advance of a Nov. 30 canvass of the state’s election results.

“No lawsuit directly challenging the statewide canvass can be filed before the canvass is complete, which will likely occur on November 30, 2020. Given the number of ballot envelopes that will potentially need to be inspected, the lawsuit seeks to begin the process of discovery as soon as possible,” the Arizona Republican Party said in a statement.  

In particular, the challenge seeks to stop the certification until votes can be retallied and confirmed.

There have been several statewide issues with the election, including in Maricopa County where Dominion Voting Systems, which has ties to Democrats, is specifically named in the county’s Board of Elections Election Day plan. Dominion has been criticized in the past for malfunctions with its machines.

In Maricopa County, a judge previously denied a request to postpone the election result certification in the county that was made by the Arizona Republican Party.  

“Arizona voters deserve to have complete trust in their election procedures. They should also have supreme confidence that only legal ballots were counted in the 2020 election,” Ward said, PHS Reporter reported. “Failure to address their concerns actively harms our state and our nation.”

Joe Biden won the state over Donald Trump by 10,457 votes.

“Due to countless voting irregularities, as well as alleged failures in the crucial processes that have been instituted to ensure the integrity of our elections, there is now a real lack of trust in the administration of this election,” Ward said in a statement. “Arizonans cannot have confidence that our state’s election canvass will be error-free considering the process by which counties verified signatures on mail-in ballots was not transparent nor adequately evaluated by outside observers. For reasons like this, we will be seeking to contest the reported result of the 2020 election.”

In specific, Ward and the Trump Campaign are challenging nearly 3.5 million ballots mailed out by counties in Arizona.

In Mohave County, elections board members have refused to certify the ballot in solidarity with the state.

Gov. Doug Ducey declared Biden the winner of the state on Tuesday. The state Republican Party then filed the petition for the court to allow discovery to happen prior to the election canvass set for Nov. 30. 

Ward said that none of the political parties were given a meaningful way to monitor absentee ballots and the signature verification process. She said while those who vote in person must show an ID, those voting by mail only need to sign the ballot, and there is no way of confirming that is the voter’s signature.