Topline
Maricopa County, home to 60% of Arizona’s voting population, is unlikely to finish counting ballots from Tuesday’s midterm election before next week, an election official said Thursday, a process that will delay the outcomes of Senate majority control and the tight race for Arizona governor.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 10: An election worker inserts a stqack of ballots into a scanning … [+]
Key Facts
Maricopa County officials will finish counting the “lion’s share” of the 400,000 remaining ballots “early next week” and “maybe” on Monday, Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates told CNN Thursday.
None of the 290,000 ballots dropped off in-person on Election Day have been counted, Gates said, which are among the 560,000 total ballots across the state that have yet to be tabulated, according to CNN.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) leads Republican Kari Lake in the governor’s race by a little more than 12,000 votes (50.3% to 49.7%) as of 3:30 p.m. ET, according to the Associated Press.
Incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D) leads Republican Blake Masters by more than 94,000 votes (51.4% to 46.4%) in the Arizona Senate race.
Key Background
As of Thursday, Democrats had secured 48 Senate seats, and Republicans netted 49, meaning either party needs just two more wins to gain majority control of the upper chamber. In addition to Arizona, results in Nevada’s Senate race between Republican Adam Laxalt and incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) are also pending, while Georgia’s Senate race is headed to a runoff after Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker both failed to win 50% of the votes needed to avoid a rematch. In the Nevada contest, Laxalt is leading Cortez Masto by nearly 16,000 votes (49.4% to 47.6%). It’s unclear when the race will be called there, because state elections rules allow ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by Saturday to be counted. Voters in Nevada have an additional two days to correct their signatures if there are mistakes on their ballots.
Tangent
Lake, a prominent promoter of claims that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, assailed the state’s ballot-counting process in a series of interviews this week. In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, she called elections officials “imbeciles,” and in a subsequent interview on Thursday with conservative radio host Glenn Beck, said she is “100% confident” she will win the race, while accusing officials of “intentionally” delaying the “inevitable.” Meanwhile, Trump cast doubt on the ballot-counting processes in both states, calling Nevada’s system “corrupt” and claiming Arizona wants “more time to cheat,” he wrote Thursday on Truth Social, adding “Kari Lake must win.” Clark County responded to Trump’s accusations, calling them “outrageous” in a statement that said the former president is “obviously misinformed about the law and our election processes.”
Further Reading
Here’s Why Arizona And Nevada’s Key Senate Races Are Still Undecided (Forbes)
Trump On Truth Social Lashes Out At Claims He’s Furious Over Midterm Losses (Forbes)
Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
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