Arizona official set to certify election results
Dec 5, 2016, 9:00 AM
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — Fall election results in Arizona will be officially certified in a ceremony Monday.
Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan will sign the paperwork as acting governor. She will fill in for Gov. Doug Ducey, who has flown to Hawaii to take part in Pearl Harbor Day 75th anniversary ceremonies this week.
Deputy Secretary of State Lee Miller will sign in Reagan’s place. Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Scott Bales and Attorney General Mark Brnovich will supervise the certification.
President-elect Donald Trump won the state on Nov. 8 by about 3½ percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton. He claimed all 11 electoral votes to keep the state red.
Although the state has historically voted Republican, polls in the last months of the campaign showed the two rivals were locked in a virtual tie.
Trump and Clinton pitched an intense battle for Arizona. Trump visited seven times and used one of the visits as a springboard for his immigration plan.
The canvass will also affirm that Republican John McCain was elected to a sixth term in the U.S. Senate.
The 80-year-old Republican easily beat Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.
The state Legislature will remain Republican but with a slightly smaller 34-26 House majority and a 17-13 Senate edge.
The biggest upset at the polls in the Phoenix saw attorney Adrian Fontes beat incumbent Helen Purcell in the race for Maricopa County recorder.
Purcell conceded a week after Election Day, when ballot counting was nearly over and Fontes’ lead could not be surpassed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.