Politics

Arizona, Nevada Won’t Be Done Counting Ballots Until Week After Elections, Officials Say

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Arizona and Nevada won’t be done counting ballots from the midterm elections until the week after the elections, officials say.

A Maricopa County, Arizona, election official, Bill Gates, and Clark County, Nevada, Registrar Joe Gloria, announced Thursday that there are 290,000 ballots in Maricopa County and over 50,000 ballots in Clark County that have not been counted. Both officials reported that ballot collection will continue through the weekend with results expected on Monday.

“If you drop off an early ballot, it means it has to come in on Wednesday and start the process of being signature verified,” Gates told CNN. “We have experts here who go through, compare the signature on the outside of the ballot envelope with the signature that we have in our voter registration file, so that takes a while, cause we gotta get that right.”

“We still have over 50,000 ballots that need to be counted. Those are in various stages in the process of validation before they go to the counting board and finally before they get to tabulation where we are able to read them into the system. We will continue to work through the weekend,” Gloria said.

On Tuesday, Republicans requested to extend the Maricopa County voting hours until 10 p.m. local time, but the Arizona Superior Court denied the request. The request followed voting delays and voting machine issues that reportedly affected ballot tabulation devices and printers at more than 35% of Maricopa County’s voting centers.

Arizona and Nevada, two key states that will help decide the final balance of power in Congress, remain in limbo as election officials work to tally the final results. In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads Democrat incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto 49.4% to 47.6% with 83% reporting, and Arizona Democratic candidate Mark Kelly leads Republican Blake Masters 51.5% to 46.3%, with 70% reporting, according to The Associated Press

In the gubernatorial races, Republican Joe Lombardo leads Democrat incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak 50.1% to 46.2% in Nevada, with 83% reporting, according to the Associated Press. In Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs leads Republican Kari Lake 50.4% to 49.6%, with 70% reporting.

County register for Maricopa County Stephen Richer issued a public apology Tuesday after voting delays and issues occurred. “I am very sorry for any voter who has been frustrated or inconvenienced today in Maricopa County,” Stephen Richer said in a statement. “Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.”

The Chairman of Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors just said that there are around 400,000 ballots left to be counted and that they won’t be done until “early next week.” pic.twitter.com/9zQuZKyLtG

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 10, 2022

On Wednesday, Maricopa County initially posted 62,034 votes from mail-in ballots, part of 86,000 ballots received during the weekend before the election, according to the Hill. In addition to the weekend ballots, Maricopa County received 50,000 mail-in ballots on Monday.

In total, 619,000 ballots have not been counted in Arizona, according to the hill.