View Comments
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit involving GOP activists’ quest to redo the Arizona Republican Party’s election of officers over what they deemed various irregularities during the Jan. 23 vote.
Judge Michael Kemp agreed with the state party’s attorney that the dispute is limited to internal political party elections not public elections and cannot be decided in a court of law.
The ruling is a victory for state party officials who have downplayed problems in the election and have cast the activists as the disgruntled opponents of state GOP Chair Kelli Ward and her brand of politics.
Print this article
A judge in Arizona dismissed a lawsuit requesting the court intervene in proceedings over an Arizona Republican Party election.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp ruled it was not the court s place to get involved in an internal party dispute, according to a report by the
Arizona Republic on Monday. Two state Republicans filed a lawsuit in March after Kelli Ward, the party s chairwoman, won reelection to the post that month by a margin of 42 votes. Whether or not any chicanery took place in the voting process on January 23, this Court finds that it does not have judicial authority to intervene in an inter-party dispute that is guided by rules and procedures agreed upon by an independent political party, Kemp wrote.
Judge dismisses GOP lawsuit over Maricopa County election
May 11, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
PHOENIX (AP) A Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit over alleged voting irregularities in the Arizona Republican Party s January election, ruling that the dispute involved internal party politics and cannot be decided in a court of law.
The lawsuit stemmed from the Arizona Republican Party Jan. 23 election after party chairwoman Kelli Ward narrowly won her re-election. Ward’s challenger, Sandra Dowling, alongside party activist Bill Beard, sued Ward and the party in March when party officials declined their attorney’s calls for an audit and recount, even as Ward made similar claims of former President Donald Trump s loss to President Joe Biden.
Kelli Ward in 2019.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge will soon decide if a group of dissatisfied Arizona Republicans can continue a legal challenge against leaders of the state Republican Party.
Republicans Bill Beard and Sandra Dowling say that Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward refuses to acknowledge that enough signatures were gathered to call for a meeting of the state committee that’s the roughly 1,400 Republican activists in the Arizona GOP.
A hearing is scheduled for May 18 to determine if enough valid signatures were collected. But first, attorneys for the Arizona Republican Party have asked Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp to dismiss the case.