- The race in the closely watched Arizona Senate battle between Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and Republican Blake Masters remains too close to announce.
- Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the state’s most populous county, defended his election team.
- In Nevada’s second most populous and notorious swing county, Washoe, home to Reno, at least 20,000 ballots were yet to be counted Friday.
Four days after Election Day, many Americans remain anxious and eager to know who their political leaders will be and where the balance of power will lie in the House and Senate.
In a key US Senate contest in Nevada, thousands of votes remain uncounted. And in Arizona, a record number of early counts slowed the count in a neck and neck gubernatorial election.
Some voters will have to wait weeks for answers as Senate control could be decided in a runoff election in December in Georgia’s hotly contested race between incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker.
The uncertainty comes as Republicans look set to take a victory lap if they win House and Senate majorities, while Democrats are now faring better than many expected based on the historical voting trends.
While Republicans have done well in some states, like Florida and New York, they’ve “sort of failed” in areas like the Midwest, New England and Colorado, said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Research Center. Policy.
“There seems to be nothing unusual or bad about people wanting to complain about the wait,” Kondik said. “There have been conspiracies that are completely unjustified.
“I don’t think there’s any funny business here,” Kondik concluded. “It’s kind of a waiting game.”
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Arizona election results could take weeks
The race in Arizona’s closely watched contest between Democratic gubernatorial candidates Katie Hobbs, the current Arizona secretary of state, and Republican Kari Lake, a former television broadcaster, has stayed too close to be called.
Lake used the count period, which is normal in Arizona, to make national headlines by accusing state election officials, including his own GOP colleagues, of deliberately “slowing down” the count of voice.
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Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the state’s most populous county, defended his election team.
“Quite frankly, it’s offensive to Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slowing this down when they’re working 2-6 p.m.,” Gates said.
Meanwhile, Hobbs urged patience and expressed confidence in the system.
“Despite what my election denying opponent tries to make people believe, the pattern and cadence of the incoming votes is exactly what we expected,” Hobbs said. tweeted Thursday. “In fact, they reflect what our state has seen in recent elections. We need to remain patient and let our election officials do their job.”
In Maricopa County, with 4.5 million residents including Phoenix, and Tucson, Arizona, with about 2.5 million registered voters, about 300,000 votes were still being counted after a record number of ballots have been cast at the sites, officials said. That includes a record number of voters in Maricopa County — about 290,000 — who cast their ballots on Election Day, which delayed the count, county officials said.
About 80,000 ballots were expected to be added to the Maricopa Country election results Friday night, county officials said. More than 50% of those results will include ballots cast on Election Day, officials added.
It will be the first drop, including these results, that could serve as an indicator for campaigns eagerly waiting to see if voting patterns hold up from 2020, which has seen Republicans make big gains as the Ballots cast on election day were tabulated.
These numbers include provisional ballots, those that cannot be read by tabulators at polling sites on Election Day, and advance ballots cast immediately before and on Election Day. Early ballots will need to be verified by signature, separated from their affidavit envelope signed by a bipartisan team, and then counted before they can be included in the results.
According to state law, officials cannot begin counting provisional ballots and advance ballots that require additional verification until five business days after Election Day.
Gates sought to push back against the idea that the counting process takes longer than normal.
“For people who have covered Arizona politics for a while, it’s very, very common,” he said. “I know people are very eager to get the results, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary here.”
The process typically takes 10 to 12 days, officials said.
“I will defend my state,” Gates said. “We do things the right way.”
Thousands of scrutineers are working through the weekend in hopes of getting most of the results reported early next week, Maricopa County Electoral Officer Scott Jarrett said. State law requires them to finish by November 28.
“It takes time,” Jarrett said ahead of the election.
As the results fell on Friday night, the competitive Senate battle between Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and Republican Blake Masters ended with Kelly picking up victory.
Nevada is still counting the ballots
With tens of thousands of ballots still up for grabs in the working-class swing state of Nevada, which has been hit hard by inflation as well as the pandemic, results may not be announced until the start of next week in the crucial and extremely thin United States. Race to the Senate.
Incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto trailed Republican Adam Laxalt narrowly on Friday by just 798 votes — and at least 23,000 mail-in ballots had yet to be counted in Clark County, the state’s most populous county and home to Las Vegas and its 1.3 million active registered voters.
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In Nevada’s second most populous and notorious swing county, Washoe, home to Reno, at least 20,000 ballots were yet to be counted Friday.
In Clark County, election officials expected their absentee ballot tally to be updated by Saturday, the last day that state law allows absentee ballots to be released. to arrive and be counted. Joe Gloria, the county’s registrar of voters, said he could accept postmarked ballots on Election Day.
In addition to the pending mail-in ballots, Gloria said her staff still had to count more than 5,500 provisional ballots dropped off at the voting machines.
But that count won’t take place until next week after state election officials send in an interim report, which state law requires before those ballots can be tabulated.
“I can tell you with great confidence that everything we’re doing here in Clark County is moving those ballots as quickly as possible, but I have to caution you that we don’t want to move too quickly,” a said Gloria. “We want to make sure we’re accurate and that we validate signatures and identity…it’s a lot of work that’s involved.”
Uncounted mail-in ballots in Clark County are expected to heavily favor the Democrats.
While the votes are still being counted, incumbent Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak conceded Friday night to Republican challenger Joe Lombardo.
“Serving you as governor for the past four years has been the honor of my life,” Sisolak said. tweeted. “Thank you to everyone who believed in us and gave their all. It’s important that we come together now to keep moving the state forward.”
Other midterm election results remain unknown
In other can’t-miss midterm splurges, dozens of House races remain unresolved, including Republican incumbent Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert’s slim lead in her district against Democratic challenger Adam Frisch. , which could lead to a possible recount.
“I told you all year, the left would do anything to get rid of me,” Boebert tweeted to his followers on Friday to “participate” in his campaign. “As this race comes down to every last vote, I need you to help us ensure we have the resources to finish what we started!”
In California, there was some uncertainty in about a dozen of the state’s 52 House contests. The most contested are in Southern California and the Central Valley agricultural belt region of the state.
In Southern California, Democratic Representatives Katie Porter and Mike Levin were in close competition in their races, despite an 11-hour visit from President Joe Biden.
East of Los Angeles, GOP Rep. Ken Calvert was trying to avoid a challenge from Democratic nominee Will Rollins, who was less than 1,500 votes away, but just over half the ballots had been cast. accounts.
In the Central Valley region, GOP Rep. David Valadao, who once voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump, is trying to hold Democrat Rudy Salas for re-election.
Contributors: Donovan Slack, Sean Rossman and Ella Lee, USA TODAY; Robert Anglen, Stacey Barchenger, Arizona Republic; Associated press
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