Gov. Doug Ducey urges all votes be counted before calling Arizona election

PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted Tuesday night it was far too early to call some election results in Arizona as Republican candidates Martha McSally and President Donald Trump trailed by large amounts.

Just under 25% of the precincts were reported when Ducey tweeted  around 10 p.m. that it was “far too early to call the election in Arizona.”

At the time, Trump was trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden by 200,000 votes and Democratic challenger Mark Kelly leading incumbent McSally by over 230,000 votes for the U.S. Senate.

Ducey reiterated his message in another tweet just after 1 a.m. when the Associated Press officially called the Arizona races in favor of Biden and Kelly.

Not so fast. The race has narrowed in #AZ considerably. 130,000 votes separate the candidates, with hundreds of thousands of votes yet to be counted, from all over the state. I'll say it again: Let's count the votes, and let the people decide rather than making declarations. https://t.co/1WYhjChrtm

— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) November 4, 2020

McSally’s communications director had the same message.

Hundreds of thousands of votes have still not been counted. Every Arizonan deserves to have their voice heard and vote counted. We continue to monitor returns. The voters of Arizona decide this election, not media outlets.

— Caroline Anderegg (@cfanderegg) November 4, 2020

Kelly spoke to a crowd around the same time of the first tweet by Ducey, a plan he’s had since Tuesday morning, but didn’t explicitly declare victory.

Fox News, however, declared both Biden and Kelly had won Arizona within the 9 p.m. hour. No other media outlets had called the race for either man at the time, according to the New York Times.

Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer echoed Ducey’s thoughts.

It’s way too early to declare a winner in Arizona!

As a former Secretary of State, I know that hundreds of thousands of ballots still need to be counted – especially early ballots dropped off today at the polls.

We must count every vote!!@realDonaldTrump @POTUS @TrumpWarRoom

— Jan Brewer (@GovBrewer) November 4, 2020

Even with the big leads for Biden and Kelly, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs previously said to not expect final results on election night.

The wins would be big victories for the Democratic party, as it would get Biden closer to the White House and give the state two Democratic senators in Washington, D.C, for the first time since 1953.

Follow @TaDunham