After the Wednesday evening ballot dump by Maricopa County election officials, the race for Arizona’s governor between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs is still too close to call. However, Kari Lake’s campaign remains confident her victory will come.
“Good. Now that we’ve gotten out of that way, [Maricopa County] can start counting the voters who dropped their ballots off on Election Day. They will break heavily in our direction. We remain confident about the trajectory of this race,” tweeted Lake’s campaign in response to the new votes.
Good. Now that we've gotten out of that way, @maricopacounty can start counting the voters who dropped their ballots off on Election Day.
They will break heavily in our direction.
We remain confident about the trajectory of this race. https://t.co/ebN5nrJKSn
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) November 10, 2022
According to county records available for public review, 62,034 additional ballots were added to the total count on Wednesday, with 46 percent of voters participating. In total, 1,135,139 ballots were cast in this race, with 52 percent of those counted falling in Hobbs’s favor.
But Data Orbital shared that this latest drop represents about 15 percent of the total remaining ballots in the county, and an estimated 360,000 are uncounted. The research firm said they expected Wednesday night’s batch to be bad for Republicans, which is why the Lake campaign retains confidence.
Maricopa County – 62,034 Ballots Reported
Kari Lake – 28,058 (45.9%)
Katie Hobbs – 33,018 (54.1%)~360,000 Ballots left in Maricopa
Reminder(!!!) – This drop is only about 15% of the total ballots remaining and the batch we expected to be the worst for the Republicans. #AZ
— Data Orbital (@Data_Orbital) November 10, 2022
As for the state of the race overall, percentages for both candidates have not changed much throughout the day. Fox 10 reports that 69 percent of the total votes cast in the state have been counted, and Hobbs has a slight lead over Lake at 50.3 to 49.7 percent. Lake is currently winning big in counties like Yuma, Mohave, Yavapai, and Pinal, while Hobbs’s support comes from Pima, Coconino, and Apache.
Similarly, the other significant races remain at a standstill with no clear winners yet emerging. Senate incumbent Mark Kelly (D) currently leads over Blake Masters by five percent, with no notable changes in percentages coming after the Maricopa County batch. State Senator Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) remains in a similar situation at five points behind his Democrat opponent Adrian Fontes. Finchem called the 62 thousand votes “measly” for having to wait 24 hours to see them. He added that “third-world countries” would get results out faster.
Maricopa’s election systems are a national disgrace. We waited 24 hours and got a measly 62k votes. Even third world countries count faster than that. #AZSOS
— Mark Finchem #JustFollowTheLaw VoteFinchem.com (@RealMarkFinchem) November 10, 2022
As of press time, the closest race is for Attorney General. 0.2 percent is all that separates Kris Mayes from Republican Abe Hamadeh. Hamadeh breifly took the lead during the Wednesday afternoon by 3,081 votes, but that position has returned to Mayes following the newest batch.
Following the latest numbers, Hamadeh called the handling of ballot tabulation an “embarrassment” and said Arizonans should have their results on election day.
Arizona DESERVES results on Election Day.
This is an embarrassment. Maricopa County needs accountability.
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) November 10, 2022
Meanwhile, State Treasurer incumbent Kimberly Yee has a solid 11-point lead over Democrat Martín Quezada. In the Superintendent of Public Instruction race, former Attorney General Tom Horne has a slight lead over incumbent Kathy Hoffman (D).
Stay up to date on election results here.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Photo “Katie Hobbs” by Katie Hobbs. Background Photo “Voting Booths” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
