“We do not have the structure to do an audit,” she said in KFYI’s radio program “The Conservative Circus with James T. Harris.”
She added that the structure for an audit “does not exist in our process, our procedures, our by-laws, in law.”
Ward, one of the most ardent proponents of former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, claims not only that an audit is not possible, but that calls for it are being pushed as a way to get her to attack.
She argued that the only people demanding an audit were Sergio Arellano – a small business owner from Tucson who challenged Ward to the top state function – and people who were part of his campaign.
Arellano did not respond to CNN’s request for an answer to Ward on Friday.
“I expect the state’s IDP to do a good job here and give election officials across the state an example of how to conduct a timely audit and how important the security of ballot papers and backups are on paper,” he said. Arellano said in a statement posted on Facebook.
He alleges that a “reversal of the declared results” in another party match prompted a number of state committees to raise concerns and reach out to him to ask for an audit. Sandra Dowling was announced as the winner of a bid for the 8th Congressional District of Arizona’s General Membership Committee, only to withdraw the victory due to an error.
During the radio interview, Ward attacked the media, saying that stories about the possible audit were trying to ‘do something that just doesn’t exist’ and that ‘everything was on top’ with the election.
The former vice president has become the second Democrat since Harry Truman in 1948 to win Arizona in 2020. In the wake of Biden’s victory, Ward complained about some Republicans supporting the new president, including Cindy McCain, the late widow of Senator John McCain, and former Republican Senator Jeff Flake.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.