Kyrsten Sinema expands lead over Martha McSally in Senate race
Nov 9, 2018, 5:01 PM | Updated: 8:05 pm
(Kyrsten Sinema for Senate Photo)
(Kyrsten Sinema for Senate Photo)
PHOENIX – Friday was another good day of counting for Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in her drawn-out U.S. Senate race against Republican Martha McSally.
A day after overtaking McSally, who led by approximately 17,000 votes after Election Day, Sinema expanded her advantage to around 20,000 votes.
Sinema led by approximately 9,000 votes entering the day.
“Once again, today’s data confirmed our expectation that as the ballots are counted, Kyrsten will steadily build her advantage and be elected to the U.S. Senate,” Sinema campaign manager Andrew Piatt said in a statement.
Several counties with outstanding votes continue to report results daily, and once again Maricopa County provided the biggest swing in Sinema’s favor.
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However, about 370,ooo ballots in the state still hadn’t been tabulated, approximately 266,000 in Maricopa County.
Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said his office will continue counting through the weekend and Veterans Day and into next week, until all votes are counted, and making daily reports at 5 p.m.
He said the county’s equipment can process only around 75,000 ballots a day.
According to Garrett Archer, data analyst for the Arizona Secretary of State Office, every county except Greenlee has set a record this week for most ballots cast in a midterm election.
All of Arizona's counties except Greenlee have now broken their ballots cast record for a midterm. All were set in 2010, except Apache, which was set in 2014.
— The AZ Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) November 9, 2018
Earlier Friday, one element of Arizona’s extended vote count was put to bed.
A GOP lawsuit that alleged counting methods in Maricopa and Pima counties gave Democrats an unfair advantage was settled.
As a result of the settlement, which was finalized in Maricopa County Superior Court, recorders in all 15 counties have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to “cure” early ballots that were submitted with signatures that didn’t match the voter registration signatures, using the same methods they used before the election.
Up until the settlement, only Maricopa and Pima counties had continued verifying signatures since polls closed Tuesday night.
