After Election Night, it looked like several races across the country were still to close to call, even here in the Grand Canyon State. Jeff Flake, one of our current Senators was not running for re-election this year, leaving his seat open. Representatives Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally were both vying for this seat. The Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won by over 38,000 votes with more votes still being counted. On Election Night, McSally was ahead, which seemed disheartening for Democrats hoping to turn the seat blue. Last Wednesday, new vote tallies came out at about 5 p.m. Arizona time. That new batch of votes put Sinema ahead of McSally by about 2,000 votes, and it didn't stop there. Sinema's lead grew since then, tightening slightly throughout the week.
Last Friday, the Arizona Republican Party sued county recorders claiming that they don't follow a consistent standard when allowing for voters to address problems with mail-in ballots. They also went on to claim the Maricopa and Pima counties irregularly allow for voters to address the problems 5 days after the election. The lawsuit was aimed to help rural voters, who usually turn out for Republicans. They believe that this will help McSally. Democrats and Republicans reached a settlement, allowing for counties to continue verifying signatures until November 14th. Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said "There are two parts to this issue, the ballot, and the envelope. The GOP asked me to sequester both as evidence. Keeping the ballots separate and uncounted is illegal, and I refuse to disenfranchise voters. But, I still have the envelopes. So if they want to sue me for something I understand the Clerk's Office is open until 5 p.m."
Fontes has been in the center of the news lately, due to polling places not being ready back in August during the primaries.
Both the McSally and Sinema campaigns released statements last week. McSally's campaign stated, "Today our vote total grew at a greater rate than expected, and we expanded our vote margins in rural areas counting mail-in ballots dropped off on election day. The latest release provides compelling evidence that the remaining uncounted ballots are favorable to Martha. And we will continue our effort to make sure all lawful ballots are counted."
On the other side, Sinema's campaign manager, Andrew Piatt, said, "Once again, today's data confirmed our expectation that as the ballots are counted, Kyrsten will steadily build her advantage and be elected to the U.S. Senate." Sinema's lead grew steadily over these past few days.
McSally congratulated Sinema on Monday night in a video posted on Twitter. This race is unlike other across the country — the loser accepted defeat and wished the winner well. In Florida, a tight battle for Senate is still ongoing between two bitter rivals. Sinema is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat from Arizona since 1988 when Dennis DeConcini won. She is the first woman to represent Arizona in the Senate, as well as the first openly bisexual person to represent any state in the chamber.
