Counting continues in Arizona as Republicans lose ground
Nov 12, 2018, 8:36 AM | Updated: 9:48 am
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX – Ballot-counting continued Monday in Arizona nearly a week after Election Day, with Republicans’ hopes in three key statewide races growing dimmer by the day.
“We could get anywhere from 50 (thousand) to 90,000 ballots today,” Garrett Archer, senior analyst with Arizona Secretary of State’s office, said Monday on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.
Kyrsten Sinema extended her lead over Republican Martha McSally to around 33,000 votes on Sunday.
“The trends are not at all going where (McSally) needs the to go,” Archer said.
“She’s still losing Maricopa County on each ballot drop. She needs to win these next ballot drops by a significant amount to turn this around.”
Sinema’s campaign called her lead “insurmountable” over the weekend.
“I think the McSally campaign is in a really bad spot,” Valley political consults Stan Barnes said on Arizona’s Morning News.
“Every time votes are counted we get a new distance between the Sinema campaign and the McSally campaign. (McSally is) trending in the wrong direction.”
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Sinema is looking to become Arizona’s first female U.S. senator and the state’s first Democrat elected to the position since 1988.
Archer said ballots likely would trickle in from smaller counties, but the big numbers will come from Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county.
Around 220,000 ballots remained to be counted in the state, Archer tweeted Sunday, 162,000 from Maricopa County.
Arizona outstanding ballot report 11/11 6:33PM
Cochise: 650
Coconino: 4.8k
La Paz: 576
Maricopa: 162k
Pima: 36.3k
Pinal: 14.7kState of Arizona: 219.8k
— The AZ Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) November 12, 2018
Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Steve Gaynor were battling it out for secretary of state.
Gaynor had been declared winner Election Night with a lead if around 44,000 votes, but Hobbs didn’t concede. As counting continued, Gaynor led by less than 300 votes by Sunday.
“That one (Hobbs-Gaynor) is a nail-biter,” Archer said. “It’s not often we get a statewide general that is this exciting.”
In the race for state superintendent of public instruction, Democrat Kathy Hoffman declared herself the winner over Republican Frank Riggs, although the race hasn’t been called.
“The lead there is probably not going to change,” Archer said.
Hoffman trailed by around 8,000 votes after Election Day but pushed her lead to more than 46,000 votes Sunday.
