Arizona Senate race still undecided as election officials release more ballots
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
There is so much attention on Arizona right now. Election officials there are methodically counting votes while they fight off criticism about how long it is taking. It's one of three states with undecided Senate races, the outcomes of which will determine which party controls the chamber in the next Congress. There are other close races in Arizona, too - some House seats, a governor's race that has gotten national attention and a few other statewide offices, including secretary of state, which will oversee the next election. NPR politics reporter Ximena Bustillo is in Phoenix and joins us now.
Thanks so much for being here.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Thank you.
MARTIN: Just give us the latest, Ximena.
BUSTILLO: Sure. Maricopa County, the county with the largest share of voters that also encompasses Phoenix, closed out on Thursday with more than 300,000 ballots left to count. Here's what happened. A lot of people voted, and a lot of people did so by taking the ballot mailed to them and dropping it off at a polling location on Election Day instead of mailing it in or dropping it off earlier. Those are many of the ballots left to be counted. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot - 290,000, in fact.
And this is a historic number of those Election Day drop-offs, 100,000 more ballots than Election Day 2020, which held the previous record. Now those ballots go through a multistep process until they can be counted. And that all just takes time.
MARTIN: Right. But that opens the door to conspiracy theories, right?
BUSTILLO: Well, election officials have been working even since before Election Day to ward off concerns of election tampering or fraud. Election deniers performed well in the GOP primary, and the top statewide candidates for Senate, governor and secretary of state all echo false claims of election fraud in 2020. Because it's been a major theme of the election this time around, it's no surprise that some candidates, like Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, have accused officials of delaying and stalling the results right now.
Bill Gates, the top Maricopa County election official, told reporters that the long wait for final tallies is not new, and he is tired of the criticism.
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BILL GATES: And quite frankly, it is offensive for Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slow rolling this when they're working 14 to 18 hours. So I really hope this is the end of that now; we can be patient and respect the results when they come out.
BUSTILLO: And it is true that counting ballots, which is different than calling an election, usually bleeds into the week after Election Day. Even then, in 2018, the Associated Press called the race for Senator Kyrsten Sinema nearly a week later.
MARTIN: So given that all this is going as it normally should go, what can we expect over the next two days?
BUSTILLO: We can expect to keep waiting. County officials have not given an estimate for when all the ballots will be done. They are releasing one batch of ballot counts each evening. So that is why you may be seeing updates come slowly. Plus, even though Maricopa is the biggest county, Pima County, where Tucson is, also has more than 100,000 outstanding ballots. Election officials are urging everyone to be patient. So far, there haven't been any signs of unrest, as some had feared. Still, though, election workers are taking some heat. Here's Gates again talking about threats they've faced.
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GATES: And that threat level is continuing. And that's - that is now a part of life for me and my colleagues. And it shouldn't be, and it shouldn't be for all the elections workers and election officials across the country. But that's now a way of life.
BUSTILLO: As for why this is taking this long, look, officials made a point to name other states that are still tabulating results, and there are several outstanding House races anyways.
MARTIN: NPR's Ximena Bustillo. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.
BUSTILLO: Thank you.
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