13 days after election, all of Arizona’s votes have been counted
Nov 19, 2018, 6:38 PM | Updated: Nov 20, 2018, 8:13 am
PHOENIX – Thirteen days after the polls closed, all the ballots cast in Arizona’s midterm election have been counted.
As expected, Maricopa County sent its final batch of votes Monday to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
“Maricopa County voters cast their ballots in record numbers this election,” Recorder Adrian Fontes said in a press release.
“Finishing the ballot count was no easy task, but the elections department staff and volunteers were up to the challenge. I am incredibly proud of everyone involved.”
The Maricopa County Elections Department has completed ballot tabulation for the 2018 General Election.
Maricopa County Election results are available here: https://t.co/yJpuLCiCXe pic.twitter.com/ojlC6zZZk8
— Adrian Fontes (@RecorderFontes) November 20, 2018
The state’s final totals remain unofficial until the Dec. 3 canvass of results.
Arizona’s largest counties, Maricopa and Pima, were the last to finish counting. Pima made its final report Saturday.
Hundreds of thousands of ballots remained to be counted in the state after Election Day, Nov. 6.
According to the secretary of state website, around 320,000 early ballots were dropped off at the polls that day.
After Election Day, county recorders had to verify the signatures on all of the uncounted ballots and check to make sure the voters hadn’t also voted at the polls before those ballots could be tabulated.
As counties got caught up tabulating the ballots and reporting them the state, several Democratic candidates in high-profile races overcame Election Day deficits.
On Nov. 12, U.S. Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema and superintendent of public instruction candidate Kathy Hoffman declared victory in their races.
On Friday, Katie Hobbs declared victory in the secretary of state race. She’d trailed opponent Steve Gaynor by around 44,000 votes when the polls closed, a deficit so large the Associated Press called it prematurely in the Republican’s favor.
In one race that was in doubt even longer, it appears Republican state Sen. Kate Brophy McGee has held onto her seat in District 28. In the final tally on the secretary of state’s results page, the incumbent had a 347-vote lead over Democratic challenger Christine Porter Marsh.
