The Monday night election results reporting by Maricopa County showed a strong 56.8 percent to 43.2 percent advantage to Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake, but it was not enough to pull her ahead of Democrat Katie Hobbs in the overall, statewide vote count.
Although there is still an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 outstanding ballots to Maricopa County, election watchers at Associated Press, CNN, and Decision Desk HQ called the hotly contested gubernatorial race for Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Hobbs currently serves as the Arizona Secretary of State.
As of press time, the Secretary of State’s office reported the unofficial election results as Hobbs with 50.4 percent and Lake with 49.6. Less than 20,000 votes separate the two, with the Democrat at 1,267,241 votes and the Republican at 1,247,859 votes.
The Lake campaign, along with some supporters, have appealed to voters to check online to make sure their vote was properly recorded by election officials. In Arizona, voters have until 5:00 pm Wednesday, November 16, to take steps to correct a certain aspects of their absentee ballot through a process called “curing.”
“Your vote may not have been counted. You can check the status of your ballot at http://KariLake.com/cure,” Lake tweeted Monday morning; adding, “Share this with every single person you know. LET’S FINISH STRONG.”
🚨 ATTN: Your vote may not have been counted. You can check the status of your ballot at https://t.co/uZr5vhJ1sq
Share this with every single person you know. LET’S FINISH STRONG. 🇺🇸
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 14, 2022
Monday’s batch reportedly contained roughly 71,000 new votes added to the total. These ballots allegedly represented the remainder of the early ballots dropped off on election day, expected to fall in Republicans’ favor.
For Republican attorney general nominee , results leaned in his direction, and he now only trails his Democrat opponent by roughly 3,000 votes. This lands the race in range for an automatic recount under Arizona law. However, according to ABC15 data guru Garrett Archer, historically speaking, ballot recounts only shift results by a couple of hundred votes.
In other news for Republicans, Tom Horne has taken the lead for superintendent of public instruction by about 5,000 votes over incumbent Kathy Hoffman. This race will also likely go into a recount.
For the U.S. House, Republicans David Schwikert and Juan Ciscomani have both been projected as winners in their races for Districts 1 and 6, confirming the House will fall back under Republican control.
In a press conference held Monday, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates shared what comes next for the election now that the vast majority of votes have been counted. He said the curing process is in full swing, which means county officials are reaching out to anyone whose ballot has encountered an issue, such as the signature provided on the mail-in ballot not matching the signature the county has on file to confirm a voter’s identity and their vote.
Following the results, Archer stated that this marks the end of the Arizona 2022 general election. Outside of races that require a recall, most major races appear to be decided at this point.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Katie Hobbs” by Katie Hobbs and “Kari Lake” is by Kari Lake.
