Election officials released updated results Sunday evening showing Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake gained ground on frontrunner Democrat Katie Hobbs in Maricopa County by 54.6 to 45.4 percent. In Pinal County, Lake bested Hobbs 69.5 percent to 30.5 percent.
In all, the votes of little more than 97,000 of the estimated 192,900 remaining ballots from Maricopa County were tabulated – meaning about 94,000 ballots remain. In Pinal County, an estimated 10,000 ballots are untabulated.
In addition to the 94,000 ballots in Maricopa County, an estimated 66,959 uncounted ballots remain across the state, former election official and ABC15 analyst Garrett Archer noted in a tweet Sunday night.
Outstanding non provisional ballot estimate as of 7pm 11/13
Total: 160,959
Apache 8,500
Cochise 1,571
Gila 55
Maricopa 94,285
Mohave 500
Navajo 4,443
Pima 38,874
Pinal 10,626
Santa Cruz 200
Yavapai 750
Yuma 1,155— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) November 14, 2022
Archer said in a Facebook Live broadcast that although the updated vote totals show that Lake cut Hobbs’ lead by 8,900, the Republican will need roughly 58 percent of all the remaining votes in order to prevail. (The secretary of state website has not updated the new vote count as of press time.)
Meanwhile, Katie Hobbs’ campaign issued a triumphant announcement on social media claiming Hobbs is the “unequivocal favorite to become the next Governor of Arizona.”
A statement from our campaign manager on the #AZGov results pic.twitter.com/ECGwcC3O8u
— Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) November 14, 2022
The Sunday night announcements by election officials mark the fifth full day of counting, leaving many in Arizona and across the country wonder how it is that Florida — a state with a population three times larger at 22 million — can complete its general election work within 24 hours of the polls closing.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said the delay was due to all the ballots dropped off at the polls on Election Day. Florida counts all ballots on election night within three hours of the polls closing, so voters generally know who won races by the end of the evening. Voters can drop off ballots on Election Day up until the polls close in that state, but they must drop them off at the main tabulation center, not at any polling location in Arizona.
In response to COVID-19, Arizona switched to large “vote centers” instead of numerous polling locations for each precinct beginning in 2018. Voters can go to any vote center in the county to cast their ballot.
Another reason cited is that election officials were not prepared for the large number of ballots that were dropped off at polling locations on Election Day instead of deposited in ballot drop boxes before Election Day. According to Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the Democracy Fund who spent a decade working as a Maricopa County election official, normally about 180,000 Maricopa County voters would drop their early ballot off at a polling place on Election Day, but for this election that number increased to 290,000, a 70 percent increase from the 2020 general election. She said she believes it may be due to concerns about harassment at drop boxes and voter fraud.
Many voters who ran into ballot tabulation problems at polling locations gave up trying to get the reader to accept their ballot and turned it into a separate box for “misread” ballots which then required extra time to handle. Others who encountered the problem may have dug up their early ballots and dropped them off instead.
Mark Earley, a supervisor of elections in Leon County, Florida, explained how the state can count the ballots quickly. “By election morning, we have processed roughly 95 percent of our (mail-in ballots), tabulated them, and the results are sitting there waiting to be uploaded into our election management system, and compiled and released promptly after 7 p.m. on election night,” he told Votebeat.
Gates said he does not support changing the law, pointing out the positives to allowing voters to easily turn in their mail-in ballots so late, like skipping lines on Election Day.
Tyler Bowyer tweeted Friday evening, saying, “I realized the reason why Bill Gates doesn’t want to wrap up this election quickly…The sooner this election is over, the sooner his recall begins.”
Robert Canterbury, who unsuccessfully ran against Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman in 2020, is considering starting a recall against Gates. Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward tweeted, “#Recall is in the air! I’d love to see @ShawnnaLMBolick replace this little guy stat!” referencing State Representative Shawnna Bolick (R-Phoenix), who ran for Arizona secretary of state this year championing election integrity.
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor is calling for the resignations of all the Maricopa County Supervisors and Richer, and Maricopa County Member-at-Large Brian Ference is demanding the resignations of Gates and Richer.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Kari Lake War Room.
