Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema took a narrow 9,610-vote lead over GOP Rep. Martha McSally tonight as Arizona’s election authorities counted more ballots in the state’s uncalled Senate race.
The lead amounts to less than half a percentage point with over 1.8 million votes counted.
McSally was up by 17,703 votes earlier in the day, before the counties processed another 160,000 votes — but about a half-million more votes remain to be counted across Arizona, according to both campaigns.
Martha McSally and Krysten Sinema still locked in a close race in Arizona.
Most of the outstanding ballots are coming from Arizona’s largest county, Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix and includes Sinema’s congressional district.
Sinema held a slight edge of about 1 percentage point over McSally in the county as of Thursday afternoon, but the new votes counted Thursday expanded the Democrat’s Maricopa edge to 2.5 points.
That’s the outcome Democrats had hoped for, while Republicans were expecting McSally’s tally there to improve.
The state will continue to count early votes cast before the election daily until the race is resolved.
FLORIDA:
Gov. Rick Scott (R) is suing Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, alleging that her office has withheld crucial voter information as Scott’s closely watched Senate race against Sen. Bill Nelson (D) appears set for a recount.
“The people of Florida deserve fairness and they deserve transparency and the supervisor of elections is refusing to give it to us,” Scott said.
“I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election,” he added.
Scott offered no proof of his allegations.
President Trump, also without proof, condemned what he called a “big corruption scandal” on Twitter shortly after the lawsuit was announced, saying “Florida voted for Rick Scott!”
Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018
The lawsuit comes as Florida election officials and candidates gear up for an increasingly likely recount in the Senate race between Scott and Nelson.
Scott appeared on Tuesday night to be the victor in that race. But as new vote tallies — mostly from Broward and Palm Beach counties — trickled in Wednesday and Thursday, his lead narrowed considerably, putting the race in recount territory.
In Florida, if two candidates are within 0.5 points of each other, it triggers an automatic machine recount, while a margin of 0.25 points or less prompts a hand recount.
As of Thursday night, Scott led Nelson by a mere 0.18 points — well within the margin for a hand recount.
Florida’s Senate race may not be the only one that goes to a recount.
As vote tallies rose on Thursday, they showed a tightening margin between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis in the state’s hard-fought governor’s race.
Gillum conceded to DeSantis on Tuesday night after vote counts showed him trailing by a slim, yet seemingly insurmountable, 1-point margin. But that margin closed to just 0.44 points on Thursday evening, raising the prospect of a recount in that race, as well.
