2022 Arizona Election: Live updates, results as they come in
Tune in to FOX 10 Phoenix for the latest news:
Arizona has just a few races left that haven't been called since Election Day on Nov. 8. We're following the latest as each county finishes counting ballots.
Click here for a complete list of election results.
Check out our coverage of the following:
Election Results for major races
We have ended our live coverage of the 2022 elections. For previous updates, please read below. Click here for continuing, updated coverage.
November 17
8:26 a.m.
Kathy Hoffman has conceded the race for Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Currently, Republican Tom Horne leads by more than 8,000 votes with 99% of the votes counted.
November 16
9:30 p.m.
The Associated Press is projecting that Arizona voters have voted to reject Proposition 309.
The measure, if approved, would have required that people voting with mailed ballots to list their date of birth and either their driver’s license number, a state identification number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
New tallies from several counties released on Wednesday show there is no chance for the measure to pass. It was the last of 10 measures on the ballot to be called by The Associated Press.
Read More: Taking a closer look at Arizona's ballot proposition measures
12:47 p.m.
8:47 a.m.
6:47 a.m.
6 a.m.
Thousands of Arizona votes are at risk of not being counted if signatures cannot be verified by today's deadline.
Maricopa County elections officials are still working to confirm the identity of thousands of voters. Residents have until 5 p.m. tonight.
Ballot Curing in Arizona: What is it, and why you need to act now if you're affected
November 15
6:57 p.m.
4:30 p.m.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's office confirmed he called Katie Hobbs to congratulate her Tuesday morning.
2:18 p.m.
Blake Masters announces that he conceded and called Mark Kelly Tuesday morning to congratulate him. We have his full statement here.
12:47 p.m.
The AP has called the race for Corporation Commissioner. Republicans Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers won, taking 52% of the vote.
11:03 a.m.
10:57 a.m.
10:12 a.m.
Katie Hobbs is holding a victory rally a day after being projected to win the Arizona governor's race. You can watch the rally here.
8:39 a.m.
Democrat Kirsten Engel has conceded in the U.S. House District 6 race after the Associated Press projected Republican Juan Ciscomani as the winner.
6:34 a.m.
Why AP called Arizona's governor race for Katie Hobbs
The Associated Press called the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs on Monday after the latest round of vote releases gave her a lead that AP determined she would not relinquish.
The AP concluded that, even though Republican Kari Lake had been posting increasingly larger margins in vote updates from Maricopa County, she was not gaining a big enough share to overtake Hobbs, and was running out of remaining votes.
Vote counting had gone on for days since the Tuesday election, as officials continued to tally massive amounts of late-arriving ballots.
As of Monday night, there were 43,000 remaining votes to count in Arizona, according to state officials, including more than 17,000 early ballots.
Hobbs gained prominence defending the state’s elections work after Joe Biden’s contentious win there over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Lake, a former TV broadcaster, cast doubts on the outcome of that election, without evidence.
Some Republican activists in Arizona had advocated that voters intentionally wait until Election Day itself to drop off their ballots. Some of this push was based on unfounded theories that fraudsters could manipulate voting systems and rig results for Democrats, once they had seen how many GOP votes had been returned early.
Experts had warned that such a last-minute crush of ballots could end up creating delays.
Lake made a number of media appearances complaining that Maricopa was "slow-rolling" results and — without evidence — called the state’s vote count "botched," prompting Maricopa’s Republican elections chief to rebuke her. Regardless, Lake asserted her confidence that the results would turn in her favor.
Hobbs urged patience as the count continued.
TALLYING TIMELINE
Almost all of Arizona’s vote happens by mail, although some voters cast their ballots in-person at voting centers. Most Arizona counties don’t count ballots in-house, with officials instead bringing them to a central facility.
Early votes in Arizona can be counted as they come in, meaning that officials don’t have to wait until polls close on Election Day to start.
Arizona officials release their vote totals in batches. Much of the focus has been on Maricopa, the state’s largest county, with a total of 4.5 million residents — more than half of Arizona’s total population — and about 2.4 million registered voters.
November 14
8:25 p.m.
Kari Lake responded on Twitter after the Associated Press projected Katie Hobbs to win the Arizona governor race.
Juan Ciscomani wins
Republican Juan Ciscomani is projected by the AP to defeat Democrat Kirsten Engel in the U.S. House District 6 race.
David Schweikert wins
Republican Party candidate David Schweikert, who has been serving as a Congressman for over a decade, is projected by AP to defeat Democratic challenger Jevin Hodge.
Prop 308 passes
AP projects voters have approved Proposition 308.
This measure, according to the Legislative Council’s analysis, will allow a person who attended high school (or the homeschool equivalent) while in Arizona for at least two years, and graduated from high school, the homeschool equivalent, or received a high school equivalency diploma in Arizona, to be eligible for in-state tuition at any state university or community colleges.
Opponents say the measure is unfair to some people, and raised concerns over tax increases. Supporters, however, say the measure will allow students known as "dreamers," or those who grew up in the U.S. and did not know they were undocumented immigrants until they were teenagers, better access to higher education.
7:23 p.m.
The AP projects Katie Hobbs is elected as Arizona's next governor.
Hobbs' campaign released a statement on the news, saying, "I am honored to have been selected to serve as the next Governor of Arizona. I want to thank the voters for entrusting me with this immense responsibility. It is truly an honor of a lifetime, and I will do everything in my power to make you proud. I want to thank my family, our volunteers, and campaign staff. Without all of your hard work, passion, and sacrifice this night would not be possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. For the Arizonans who did not vote for me, I will work just as hard for you -because even in this moment of division, I believe there is so much more that connects us. We all want safer streets, a secure border, better schools, lower costs, and water for generations to come. This was not just about an election – it was about moving this state forward and facing the challenges of our generation. It is about giving our kids the safe and prosperous future they deserve, while letting our seniors live out their golden years with dignity. Let's get to work."
In the 6 p.m. hour
Results from several counties, including Maricopa County, have released thousands more election results.
Maricopa County is 98.6% done counting ballots with between 5,000-15,000 left to be counted.
"Updated results show 1,547,466 ballots have been counted, which represents 63.54 percent of total eligible voters. This post included an additional 72,523 ballots, nearly all of which were dropped off on Election Day. Other ballots in today’s included count some of the Election Day "door 3" ballots and any cured early ballot envelope signature," the elections department said in an email.
5:48 p.m.
5:42 p.m.
4:48 p.m.
Pima County will release more than 25K election results within the next hour.
4:04 p.m.
4 p.m.
A news conference was held at the Maricopa County Elections Department with Sheriff Paul Penzone and Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Gates.
As of this time, there are 160K ballots left to count in the state and about 94K left in Maricopa County.
This is the last press conference expected for this election cycle, officials said.
If you missed the press conference, you can watch here.
12:07 p.m.
11:57 a.m.
11:10 a.m.
8:46 a.m.
8:33 a.m.
Republican Rachel Mitchell has declared victory over her Democratic challenger, Julie Gunnigle, in the race for Maricopa County Attorney. The race has not yet been called. Currently, Mitchell has 52% of the vote, while Gunnigle has 48%.
8:10 a.m.
5:49 a.m.
According to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, just over 160,000 ballots still need to be counted across the state.
November 13
9 p.m.
7 p.m.
Katie Hobbs' campaign manager Nicole DeMont released a statement about the newest batch of election results, saying, in full, "With the latest tabulation results from Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties, Katie Hobbs is the unequivocal favorite to become the next Governor of Arizona. Katie has led since the first round of ballots were counted, and after tonight’s results, it’s clear that this won’t change. As the county election officials finalize tabulating the results, I want to again thank every staffer, every volunteer, and every supporter on this campaign. Every door knock, every phone call, and every conversation made the difference in this close race."
Lake has never led in the race but insists that she’ll take the lead as early ballots dropped off at polling places are added to the tally. She won a majority of the 99,000 votes reported in Maricopa County on Sunday, but it’s not clear if she’ll be able to narrow the gap with the roughly 160,000 remaining to be counted statewide.
The Associated Press has not yet called the race because there are still too many votes left to count to conclude Hobbs’ lead is insurmountable.
6:26 p.m.
Maricopa County just released thousands of election results. There are between 85,000-95,000 remaining ballots to be counted. 94% of the county's vote has been counted, so far.
Katie Hobbs is leading Kari Lake by 26,011 for Arizona Governor. Kathy Hoffman is leading Tom Horne by 592 votes for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction. Kris Mayes is leading Abe Hamadeh by 11,328 for Attorney General.
Results, coming up
Maricopa County elections officials say another batch of election results, an estimated 90K, will be released around 6 p.m.
5:20 p.m.
2:51 p.m.
Pinal County released just over 4,000 more election results.
1:37 p.m.
11:12 a.m.
10:22 a.m.
10 a.m.
The Associated Press has not yet called the open governor’s race in Arizona between Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state, and Republican Kari Lake, a former TV broadcaster, because there are simply too many votes left to count to conclude Hobbs’ lead is insurmountable.
That’s particularly true given that most of the remaining ballots were cast on Election Day, and this year in Arizona, those votes are expected to skew for the GOP.
As of Saturday, the margin in the governor’s race sat at just over 34,000 votes, with Lake about a point and a half behind. There are still more than 260,000 votes left to count in Arizona, meaning that Lake needs about 57% of remaining votes to overtake Hobbs.
On Saturday, Maricopa County officials released a batch of nearly 85,000 votes, which broke just slightly over half for Lake.
In a nearly 20,000-vote batch released Saturday by Pima County, Hobbs had a nearly 30 percentage point edge on Lake.
Officials also said they planned no vote release for Pima County on Sunday. Pinal County did not release vote totals on Friday or Saturday.
9:03 a.m.
8:01 a.m.
The release of ballots on Saturday from Arizona's largest county netted Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake a few thousand votes, but she's still trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs by tens of thousands of ballots.
Hobbs led Lake by 1.6 percentage points after the release of roughly 85,000 votes from Maricopa County. Approximately 270,000 ballots remain uncounted statewide, and Hobbs leads by about 35,000 votes.
7:09 a.m.
The Associated Press has projected that Democrats will keep control of the Senate after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was projected to win in Nevada.
With Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly's victory in Arizona on Friday, Democrats now hold a 50-49 edge in the Senate. The party will retain control of the chamber, no matter how next month's Georgia runoff plays out, by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote.
Democrats' hold on the Senate is a blow to Republicans' high hopes of wresting away control of Congress in a midterm election that typically favors the party out of power. It was still unclear which party would control the House of Representatives as counting continued in razor-tight races in California and a smattering of other states.
6:35 a.m.
There are still a handful of races that have yet to be decided with 88% of the votes counted. More than 266,000 ballots across Arizona have yet to be counted.
Get the latest ballot progress here.
November 12
6:51 p.m.
Yavapai County released election results Saturday night and say there are just 750 ballots left to tabulate.
6 p.m.
Maricopa County released more election results. These are late early ballot drop offs from across the Phoenix area. 87% of the county's votes have been counted, so far.
4:24 p.m.
3:56 p.m.
3:10 p.m.
Watch the full Maricopa County press conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvHiXd6GxY8
More results to come
More election results are expected to drop from Maricopa County around 6 p.m. They will be late early drop-off votes from across the Valley.
2:30 p.m.
A press conference with the Maricopa County elections officials will take place days after Election Day results continue to trickle in.
1:31 p.m.
Maricopa County released a series of tweets addressing the misinformation regarding the ballot counting process:
- To voters: "All legal votes will be counted. Your vote will count equally whether it is reported first, last, or somewhere in between. Thank you for participating."
- To candidates: "All legal votes will be counted, including votes for you. If you have the most votes in the final tally, you will be elected. If you do not have the most votes, you will have lost your election."
- Disinformation ‘super spreaders’: "Please read Arizona election law & the elections procedures manual before asking leading questions about how something seems suspicious. There are processes + checks and balances in place to make sure every legal vote is only counted once."
- Social media bots: "Your disapproval is duly noted but your upvotes and retweets will not be part of this year’s totals. This is not meant as an affront to your robot overlords, it’s just not allowed for in Arizona law."
12:23 p.m.
Get the latest on Arizona ballot progress here: https://apps.arizona.vote/info/bps/2022-general-election/33/0
11:18 a.m.
The hand count audit in Maricopa County has started. Watch a live feed here: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/elections/electionlivevideo/
10:40 a.m.
9:48 a.m.
Incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly gave 'victory remarks' after defeating Republican Blake Masters to win a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, according to AP projections.
Read the full story here.
8:52 a.m.
The Maricopa County Elections Department is expected to begin their hand count audit of ballots today. A smaller sample size will be drawn from a random selection of voting centers to ensure accuracy of the election results.
More than 270,000 ballots still need to be counted in Arizona's largest county.
7:30 a.m.
6 a.m.
Incumbent Kimberly Yee has won the race for state treasurer against Martin Quezada, according to projections from the Associated Press.
Here's what races are left:
- Governor
- Attorney general
- Congressional Districts 1 and 6
- Superintendent of Public Instruction
- Corporation Commissioner
The results on Propositions 129, 131, 132, 308, 309 and 310 have not been called yet. Only 83% of the votes have been counted.
Check ballot progress here: https://apps.arizona.vote/info/bps/2022-general-election/33/0
November 11
9 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
According to AP projections, former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes has won the election.
Fontes’ victory comes just two years after he was defeated by Republican Stephen Richer in his campaign for another term as Maricopa County Recorder. Fontes oversaw parts of Maricopa County elections in 2020, but not the actual vote counting or polling sites.
For the primary, Fontes ran against State Rep. Reginald Bolding, and won.
Fontes is a former Marine and attorney who ran ads saying he would protect voting rights for all Arizonans, and that election deniers like Finchem were making a full-fledged attack on democracy.
8:26 p.m.
Congressman Greg Stanton is projected to defeat Republican challenger Kelly Cooper, according to AP.
Stanton served as Phoenix's mayor before becoming a Congressman. He was first elected to Congress in 2018, for what was then the state's 9th Congressional District.
Cooper, a restaurant owner and Marine veteran, is a political newcomer. Stanton has been using Cooper's own words against him, including his calls to defund the FBI after they raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in August and recovered a trove of classified documents.
Cooper also has called for the release of people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was moving to certify President Joe Biden’s win. Stanton contends Cooper’s stance is "way outside the mainstream" of what is a purple district.
8:15 p.m.
Former astronaut Mark Kelly won his bid for a full term of office as Arizona’s U.S. Senator against the GOP's Blake Masters, according to AP.
In the General Election, Kelly faced Masters, an ally of billionaire investor Peter Thiel and endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
During Kelly’s campaign, he said he stood up to the Democrats when necessary to stem the flow of illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
8:06 p.m.
The Maricopa County Elections Department released about 75,000 more election results that include early ballot drop-offs on Election Day.
7:20 p.m.
Yavapai County released ballot information Friday night, almost completing the county's count for this election.
5:03 pm.
Yuma County released more election information saying there are just over 1,150 ballots left to process, and more results will be released Monday.
4:40 p.m.
If you missed the 4 p.m. press conference with Maricopa County elections officials, you can watch it here.
4:37 p.m.
Coconino County
4 p.m.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Bill Gates provides an update on tabulation numbers and detailed the upcoming hand audit of some ballots.
Gates says there will be a big ballot drop later Friday night around 8 p.m. that includes ballots dropped off on Election day. As for the hand count audit, he says the audit is required by law to make sure the machines were working correctly. Representatives from political parties will be present.
Moving forward, Gates says the ballots being counted will mostly be day-of votes.
1:54 p.m.
Ballots are still being counted on Veterans Day in Maricopa County.
1:22 p.m.
The board of supervisors in a southern Arizona county will meet next week to consider counting nearly all the ballots cast in-person on Election Day, a week after a judge ruled that state law bars expanding the normal small hand-count audit of early ballots and requires any expansion of in-person ballots to be chosen at random. The Republican-dominated Cochise County board is taking that literally, proposing to expand the count to 99.9% of the ballots cast on Election Day.
11:30 a.m.
Election officials in Maricopa County, which includes metro Phoenix and more than 60% of voters, expected to begin reporting results Friday from a crucial group of ballots — nearly 300,000 mail ballots that were returned on Election Day. That group has swung wildly in recent election cycles, from strongly Democratic in the 2018 midterms to strongly Republican in 2020.
8:53 a.m.
Pima County has the second-highest number of uncounted ballots. As of this morning, about 114,000 are left.
7:40 a.m.
In Cochise County, the debate over a hand count of ballots continues. Republican members of the Board of Supervisors are pushing for a full hand count of Election Day ballots. They filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court after a lower count judge blocked the county from a full hand count.
The county attorney and secretary of state's office have previously warned the board that a full hand count would be illegal.
6:45 a.m.
The Maricopa County Elections Department had hoped to have nearly all ballots counted by the end of today. Now they're hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend. The problem: ballots are being verified and counted in the order they were received – and they still haven't made it to all of the early ballots that were dropped off at polling places on Election Day.
So far, more than 1.2 million ballots have been tabulated in Maricopa County, and this is the second largest voting jurisdiction in the country, behind Los Angeles County, California.
5:12 a.m.
Democrats have padded their narrow leads in key Arizona contests, but the races for U.S. Senate and governor are still too early to call. About a fifth of the total ballots are left to be counted.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly led Republican Blake Masters by 5.6 percentage points late Thursday, while Democrat Katie Hobbs was 1.4 points ahead of Republican Kari Lake in the governor's race.
Election officials in populous Maricopa County expected to begin reporting results Friday from nearly 300,000 mail ballots that were returned on Election Day. That crucial group of ballots will provide clues about how remaining votes will fall.
November 10
9:00 p.m.
Republican Party candidate Eli Crane is projected by the Associated Press to defeat incumbent Democratic Congressman Tom O'Halleran in the state's 2nd Congressional District.
Crane, an Oro Valley resident, runs a small business turning spent machine gun ammunition into bottle openers and has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. He has focused his campaign on securing the U.S.-Mexico border, election integrity and combating wasteful spending. He banked on redistricting making it easy to knock off his Democratic opponent.
Rep. O'Halleran, a former Republican state lawmaker and police officer, was elected in 2020 as Congressman for the state's 1st Congressional District. He was first elected to Congress in 2016.
Crane will now represent the sprawling 2nd Congressional District, which covers much of northeastern Arizona and dips south to the northern Tucson suburbs. Redistricting remade the district into one that strongly favors the GOP by drawing in the Prescott area.
Read More: Arizona’s CD2 could decide congressional delegation makeup
Also Read: Did your Congressional district change this year? Here's the reason why
8:00 p.m.
Officials in Maricopa County released another tranche of voting results, and according to the updated numbers, Democrat Katie Hobbs' lead over Republican Kari Lake now stands at 26,879.
Meanwhile, Democrat Senator Mark Kelly's lead over Republican Blake Masters is now at 114,894.
Democrat Adrian Fontes' lead over Republican Mark Finchem in the Secretary of State's election is now at 109,244.
In the Attorney General's race, Democrat Kris Mayes' lead over Republican Abe Hamadeh is now at 16,414.
According to the Associated Press, 74% of the votes have now been counted.
5:00 p.m.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates talked about the work election workers have been doing.
"I want to be very clear about the work that is being done. They are ready working 14 to 18 hours a day. They are making a great commitment," said Gates.
The ballot counting efforts have attracted media attention worldwide.
"Many people know the U.S. really well. They're really interested in your country," said Viviane Manz, a reporter for Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), a television station in Switzerland. "I've covered different swing states. I was in Pennsylvania, and now here in Arizona. It's important for us because here, it's not decided yet."
Read More: Maricopa County officials provide updates on ballot counting efforts
4:40 p.m.
A key question hangs over the more than 600,000 ballots left to be tallied in Arizona: Do they look like the state's late-counted 2020 ballots that overwhelmingly went to Republicans or break down more like the 2018 midterms, when Democrats won most of them?
The answer will determine who wins extremely tight races for U.S. Senate and House as well as governor, secretary of state and attorney general. At stake are control of Congress and the rules for the 2024 presidential election in a crucial battleground state.
The races remain too early to call two days after the midterm election, with about a quarter of the ballots still left to count.
4:30 p.m.
Polls closed two days ago in Arizona, but counting for the 2022 midterm elections continued Thursday, as officials continued to tally votes cast in outstanding races for Senate and governor. It's taking a long time to count Arizona's votes, which are announced in waves and typically take past Election Day itself to tally. The wait isn't new, although in cycles past, the intervening pause has become a contentious time during which doubts about an election's integrity has drawn questions.
The Associated Press hasn't called winners for all of Arizona's top-of-the-ticket races. Almost all of Arizona's vote happens by mail, and counting all of those ballots can take a long time, particularly in a county as large as Maricopa, with a total of 4.5 million.
3:45 p.m.
2:24 p.m.
Arizona Democrats maintain small, but dwindling leads over their Republican rivals for U.S. Senate and governor. The races remain too early to call two days after the election, with some 600,000 ballots left to count, about a quarter of the total cast.
Protracted vote counts have for years been a staple of elections in Arizona, where the overwhelming majority of votes are cast by mail and many people wait until the last minute to return them.
Democrats opened big leads early on election night, when only mail ballots returned early were reported, but they saw their margins dwindle as more Republican ballots were counted. On Thursday morning, Democrats led in the races of Senate, governor, secretary of state and attorney general.
2:11 p.m.
1:10 p.m.
Read more: Why is it taking so long for Arizona to count ballots?
11:18 a.m.
9:58 a.m.
Watch the counting process: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/elections/electionlivevideo/
6:13 a.m.
Arizona Democrats maintained small but dwindling leads over their Republican rivals in the races for U.S. Senate and governor, contests that could determine control of the Senate and the rules for the 2024 election in a crucial battleground state.
The races remained too early to call two days after the election, with some 600,000 ballots left to count, about a quarter of the total cast.
Protracted vote counts have for years been a staple of elections in Arizona, where the overwhelming majority of votes are cast by mail and many people wait until the last minute to return them. But as Arizona has morphed from a GOP stronghold to a competitive battleground, the delays have increasingly become a source of national anxiety for partisans on both sides.
After opening big leads early on election night, when only mail ballots returned early were reported, Democrats have seen their leads dwindled as more Republican ballots have been counted. On Thursday morning, Democrats led in the races of Senate, governor and secretary of state, while the race for attorney general was essentially tied. It could take several days before it’s clear who won some of the closer contests.
With Republicans still in the hunt, it remained unclear whether the stronger-than-expected showing for Democrats in much of the U.S. would extend to Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold that became a battleground during Donald Trump’s presidency.
The GOP nominated a slate of candidates who earned Trump’s endorsement after falsely claiming his loss to President Joe Biden was tainted.
Among them former television news anchor Kari Lake was about half a point behind Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the race for governor, a contest that centered heavily on Lake’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election. The Republican candidate for attorney general also trailed narrowly.
Democrats had more comfortable 5-point margins in the races for U.S. Senate and secretary of state, but with so many ballots outstanding, the races were too early to call.
November 9
9:30 p.m.
9:00 p.m.
It has been over 24 hours since polls closed, and officials are still counting ballots in Arizona.
As counting efforts continue, some are asking why do other states get election results so fast, and Arizona still has no answer on most of the top races.
One factor in the speed of counting is the sheer size of Maricopa County, which is the nation's second largest voting jurisdiction. For this election, 1.3 million ballots were cast in the county, and 290,000 early ballots were dropped off on Election Day.
Another factor is the ballot verification process.
"When people are told to drop off their early ballot on Election Day, those cant be counted that night. You can't just run them through a machine. They have to be signature checked, scanned first, signature checked, then processed by a bipartisan board before they can be counted," said former Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell.
Purcell said there has been a massive increase in the number of early ballots cast. According to current elections officials, over 200,000 early ballots were dropped off on Election Day, and those have yet to be counted. Currently, workers are counting ballots that came in over the weekend before Election Day, and on the Monday before Election Day.
"You can't have it instantaneous unless we had a race where we had 60% and 20%," said Purcell.
One other factor is the race themselves: Arizona has many tight races, and candidates are jockeying for the lead as new tranches of voting data come in from the various counties.
"We knew from the get-go that this election was going to be close, and a lot of ours have been," said Purcell.
Election workers sort ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on November 09, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. A day after the Midterm elections, Arizona election officials continue counting votes in close state races. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
8:00 p.m.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and Vice Chairman Clint Hickman issued a statement in regards to the voting problems that were reported during the early hours of Election Day.
The statement reads:
Over the past 24 hours, we have learned more about the printer issue that caused some ballots to not be read at Vote Centers yesterday. While the issue impacted less than 7% of Election Day voters (about 17,000 ballots), we understand that for people who went through it, this was frustrating, inconvenient, and not how they pictured Election Day. We plan to get to the bottom of it.
The printer settings for the Ballot-On-Demand printers at Vote Centers were the same ones we used in the August Primary. The paper was the same thickness. Prior to the General Election, the Elections Department test-printed and test-tabulated hundreds of ballots without issue. We are committed to finding out what factors changed that led to issues at 70 Vote Centers on Tuesday. We are grateful to county techs who found a fix to the problem by adjusting printer settings.
The good news is election administration has built in redundancies—backup plans when things don’t go as planned. This enables all valid votes to count even if technology, on occasion, fails. Voters impacted by the printer issue had several ways to cast their ballot yesterday, including dropping their completed ballot into a secure box (door 3) on site. Those ballots will be verified as legitimate and then tabulated at MCTEC. That process is already underway.
All ballots will be counted securely and accurately.
Once we get through this election, we are committed to finding the root cause of the issue so that it does not happen again.
As a county board, we are grateful for the 3,000 election workers who helped legal voters cast a ballot. We are proud of the hybrid model we’ve created that allows registered voters to cast a ballot in the way they choose, by mail or in person, with bipartisan oversight. And we are confident in the work still to be done to count every vote securely and accurately.
Thank you for voting.
7:34 p.m.
Updated results - 7:00 p.m.
6:49 p.m.
5:30 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
4:54 p.m.
3:20 p.m.
12:28 p.m.
Republican Andy Biggs wins reelection to U.S. House in Arizona's 5th Congressional District, AP projects.
12:10 p.m.
11:56 a.m.
11:50 a.m.
11:41 a.m.
9:46 a.m.
Maricopa County officials say about 1.2 million votes have been reported. Over 400,000 votes still need to be counted – about 275,000 of these are early ballots that were dropped off dating back to Nov. 4.
About 250,000 voters checked in to vote in-person on Election Day, and most of those have been reported.
Roughly 17,000 ballots that were placed into Box #3 at Maricopa County polling locations – ballots that were not counted due to problems with voting machine tabulators – need to be counted.
Maricopa County will release updated numbers once per evening until all votes are counted.
9:08 a.m.
7:40 a.m.
6:20 a.m.
5:21 a.m.
In the Arizona governor's race, Democratic Katie Hobbs' large early lead has narrowed to less than 30,000 votes.
Adrian Fontes is still in the lead in the Secretary of State race, and Mark Kelly is still ahead of Masters in the Senate race.
Kris Mayes, Democratic candidate for attorney general, has a slim 20,000-vote lead over Abraham Hamadeh.
Only 62% of the votes have been counted.
5:09 a.m.
November 8
11:55 p.m.
Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh took the stage to address his supporters.
Prop 128 rejected, per AP
This measure, according to an analysis by the Legislative Council, would have amended the state's constitution to give the State Legislature the power to, by a majority vote, amend or supersede a ballot measure if any part of the measure is found by the state Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court to contain illegal or unconstitutional language.
Currently, laws passed by voters cannot be repealed, due to a voter-approved ballot measure in 1998. However, the state legislature can, with the approval of at least three-fourths of the members of each house, amend or supersede a voter-approved law, including diverting or repurposing funding created by the law, if "legislative action furthers the purpose of the law."
Supporters say the measure would have solved the problem of unconstitutional ballot measures. Opponents, meanwhile, say the measure will give the State Legislature a way to disregard the will of voters.
Prop 211 passes, per AP
This measure, according to the Legislative Council’s analysis, deals with funding used for a political campaign’s media spending.
The measure proposes various disclosure rules for where the money that is used for media spending came from. The rules are complex, but we have covered them in our article on the various ballot measures.
Supporters say the measure will allow for greater transparency regarding who is behind political ads, and could even help promote civility in politics. Opponents say the disclosure rules are complicated and could result in some citizens dropping out of campaign involvement.
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Prop 209 passes, per AP
This measure, according to the Legislative Council’s analysis, deals with debt collection, including tax liens.
The measure proposes increases to various exemptions on debt collection, lowering income garnishment for debt repayment, and lowering the maximum interest rate on medical debt from the current level of 10%.
Opponents say the measure will hurt Arizonans in a number of ways, including higher interest rates and less access to credit for Arizona consumers and businesses alike, while supporters say this measure can protect Arizonans from crippling debt.
Navajo Nation switches up leadership
Buu Nygren has spoiled Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez's hopes for a second term in office, AP reports.
Unofficial results from the tribe's election office show Nygren defeated Nez in the nonpartisan race Tuesday. Nygren had been frustrated at the pace of tribal government and infrastructure projects that he said Nez had long enough to bring to fruition.
Nez has pledged to work more closely with the Navajo Nation Council that often is seen as more powerful than the presidency. Still, the Navajo president wields influence nationally because of the size of the tribe's reservation in the U.S. Southwest and its huge population.
11:10 p.m.
Senator Mark Kelly is taking the stage in Tucson ahead of his race against GOP hopeful Blake Masters.
10:42 p.m.
Where are these votes coming from?
10:31 p.m.
10:08 p.m.
GOP Gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake took the stage, saying, "Are you ready to take this state back? Are you ready to turn things around?"
9:50 p.m.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone gave a press conference in downtown Phoenix at a Maricopa County tabulation center for an update on voter and election worker safety. He says the press conference wasn't a reaction to any specific incident.
9:47 p.m.
Congressional Dist. 7
AP has projected Democratic Congressman Raúl Grijalva to win another term in office, defeating Republican Luis Pozzolo.
In 2020, Grijalva was elected to the state's 3rd Congressional District. According to his House of Representatives website, he was first elected to Congress in 2002, for what was then the state's 7th Congressional District.
On his campaign website, Pozzolo describes himself as an immigrant to the U.S. from the South American country of Uruguay and was naturalized as a citizen in 2012.
9:12 p.m.
Congressional Dist. 3
Congressman Ruben Gallego is projected to defeat Republican challenger Jeff Zink, according to AP.
Gallego, a Marine veteran, was first elected as Congressman in 2014, for the state's 7th Congressional District.
On his campaign website, Zink listed four campaign focuses, including infrastructure, public safety, education, and freedom, described as defense of the 2nd Amendment.
Also Read: Did your Congressional district change this year? Here's the reason why
8:52 p.m.
8:50 p.m.
8:23 p.m.
Democratic candidate for Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs took the stage to thank voters and volunteers for their work on her campaign.
Results, so far
Mine inspector
There was only one major candidate for this race: incumbent Republican Paul Marsh. Marsh was appointed to the position by Gov. Doug Ducey in 2021, after the then-incumbent mine inspector, Joe Hart, resigned from office.
A Democratic Party candidate named Trista Di Genova, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, was running for the position as a write-in candidate.
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Congressional Dist. 8
Incumbent Republican Congresswoman Debbie Lesko is projected to win re-election, according to AP.
Lesko, who was first elected to Congress in 2018 via a special election, is endorsed by former President Donald Trump. She faced two Democratic write-in candidates this election: Alixandria Guzman and Jeremy Spreitzer. A third write-in candidate, Richard Grayson, withdrew from the race.
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Congressional Dist. 9
Incumbent Republican Congressman Paul Gosar is projected to win re-election, according to AP.
Rep. Gosar was first elected to Congress in 2010, winning the race for what was then Arizona's 1st Congressional District.
Gosar received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump in 2021, just a day after he was censured by the House of Representatives for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword.
Gosar rejected what he called the "mischaracterization" that the cartoon was "dangerous or threatening. It was not."
"I do not espouse violence toward anyone. I never have. It was not my purpose to make anyone upset," Gosar said.
Earlier in 2021, Gosar also attracted controversy for appearing to suggest that Antifa provocateurs had a role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, while also appearing to blame then Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, for the riot.
Gosar faced two write-in candidates for this election, including Democrats Richard Grayson and Tom T.
Also Read: Did your Congressional district change this year? Here's the reason why
8 p.m.
Results are trickling in.
Updates before 8 p.m. ballot drop
The partisan makeup of Arizona’s U.S. House delegation and control of Congress itself are up for grabs Tuesday, with Republicans hoping to shift the state’s 5-4 Democratic tilt by picking up two and possibly three seats.
Redistricting after the 2020 U.S. Census gave the GOP candidates a leg up in those three districts. Meanwhile, a district that had strongly favored Republicans for the past decade got only slightly less GOP-friendly. The other five districts are shoo-ins for the incumbents in districts that heavily favor the sitting members of Congress.
Nationally, Republicans need to net just five seats to take control of the U.S. House.
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The Arizona Senate race between incumbent Mark Kelley and Blake Masters is one of a handful of contests that Republicans targeted in their bid to take control of what is now a 50-50 Senate. It’s a test of the inroads that Kelly and other Democrats have made in a state once reliably dominated by Republicans and will offer clues about whether Democratic success here was an aberration during the Trump presidency or an enduring phenomenon.
7:10 p.m.
Maricopa County election officials will be holding a press conference minutes after polls closed in the state.
7 p.m.
Polls are closed in Arizona. We are now waiting for the first batch of results which are expected around 8 p.m.
6:56 p.m.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan denied a request from Republicans to keep the polls open, saying that he didn’t see evidence that people were not allowed to vote.
The county recorder, Republican Stephen Richer, said he was sorry for the inconvenience.
6:44 p.m.
6:42 p.m.
55 of 60 polling locations in Maricopa County that were experiencing issues with printed ballots are fixed.
6:30 p.m.
A virtual hearing for the Lake, Masters and RNC lawsuit to keep polls open until 10 p.m. due to an issue at Maricopa County polling sites is being held.
5:20 p.m.
Click here for the 2022 Midterm Election Balance of Power interactive page with live updates as races in several other states are starting to be called.
5 p.m.
52 polling sites in Maricopa County experiencing issues with ballots have been fixed, election officials say.
Kari Lake and Blake Masters' campaigns have filed a lawsuit Tuesday afternoon, in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, asking to keep Arizona polls open until 10 p.m. because of the polling site issues.
The filing states, "Arizona law guarantees to all qualified electors a continuous period of thirteen hours in which to cast their votes in-person at a designated polling location on Election Day, November 8, 2022."
The RNC said in an emailed statement, "The RNC is joining a Republican coalition to file an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County because voting machines in over 25% of voting locations have experienced significant issues. The widespread issues – in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs – are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day. We have dozens of attorneys and thousands of volunteers on the ground working to solve this issue and ensure that Arizona voters have the chance to make their voices heard."
4:30 p.m.
Maricopa County elections officials say 49/60 vote centers have been fixed of a temporary error with printers.
3:21 p.m.
2:09 p.m.
Addressing tabulation issues in Maricopa County, Recorder Stephen Richer released a statement in full and provided some alternatives:
"I am very sorry for any voter who has been frustrated or inconvenienced today in Maricopa County.
Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.
State statute has long governed the division of labor in Arizona election administration. Broadly speaking, the County Recorder is responsible for voter registration and early voting. The Board of Supervisors is responsible for Emergency Voting, Election Day operations, and tabulation.
Since becoming Recorder in 2021, I have worked hard to improve voter registration and Early Voting, while also supporting the Board’s administration of Election Day operations and tabulation, as well as bolstering communications about elections holistically.
I will continue to do that today, and through the conclusion of this election. And I will continue to assist voters in any way I can.
The Board of Supervisors has now identified the problem and has begun fixing affected voting locations.
The Board of Supervisor is also advising all affected voters to do one of the following:
Place the ballot in "drawer 3." This secure ballot box is retrieved by bipartisan workers at the end of the evening and brought to our central tabulators. This is the same methodology used for early voting, and it is the same methodology used on Election Day by most counties (including Pima County and Yavapai County)
Go to a different voting location. There are 223 voting locations, and the significant majority of them are unaffected. If you have already checked in, but want to cast your ballot at another site, you must first check out with a poll worker at the SiteBook to return the issued ballot. Then you will be able to vote at any of our locations. All locations can be found at Locations.Maricopa.Vote.
As has always been the case, every valid vote will be counted.
And has always been the case, I remain committed to helping in any way I can.
P.S. We have received and verified over 900,000 early ballots, and those will be ready for release at 8:00 PM tonight when results first become available."
2:04 p.m.
County officials detailed poll site issues, saying, "Maricopa County has identified the solution for the tabulation issues at about 60 Vote Centers. County technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have resolved this issue. It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots. This solution has worked at 17 locations, and technicians deployed throughout the county are working to resolve this issue at the remaining locations."
12:41 p.m.
12:14 p.m.
Get the latest updates on the voting issues at Maricopa County polls here.
9:54 a.m.
9:08 a.m.
Maricopa County officials say that around 20% of their polling sites are experiencing issues with tabulation machines across the Valley, just hours into Election Day.
7:42 a.m.
It'll be a busy day as election workers handle crowds and count ballots. Here in Maricopa County, the elections department says they are ready for the large number of people expected to vote in person throughout the day.
This year, they've increased the number of voting centers to 223. That’s the most ever as they prepare for a record number of voters.
According to Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, nearly 15,000 voters checked in within the first hour. Upwards of 300,000 voters are expected throughout the day.
A few voting locations are seeing technical issues, with the most commonly reported problem being tabulator machines not reading ballots, according to Richer.
"We've had a few tabulator issues at a couple locations where the tabulator isn't immediately taking the ballot," Richer said after being asked about two locations with reported issues - Burton Barr Library and Christ Lutheran Church. "Instead it can either be Central count tabulated here, or if that issue can be addressed there, thenit can be fed into the tabulator - or voters can go to any of the other 221 voting locations."
Find voting locations, wait times here: https://elections.maricopa.gov/voting/where-to-vote.html
6:08 a.m.
Polls are now open across Arizona, and voters can visit their local polling location until 7 p.m. tonight:
FOX 10 Voter Guide: https://bit.ly/3DJkqr8
Live coverage on AZAM and FOX 10 News: https://bit.ly/39rUpdE
Websites for each county's election department and resources:
- Maricopa County: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/elections/
- Pinal County: https://www.pinalcountyaz.gov/elections/Pages/home.aspx
- Coconino County: https://www.coconino.az.gov/195/Elections
- Gila County: https://www.gilacountyaz.gov/government/elections/
- Apache County: https://www.apachecountyaz.gov/Elections
- Santa Cruz County: https://www.santacruzcountyaz.gov/173/Elections
- Mohave County: https://www.mohave.gov/contentpage.aspx?id=118
- Greenlee County: https://www.co.greenlee.az.us/departments/elections/
- Cochise County: https://www.cochise.az.gov/292/Elections
- Graham County: https://www.graham.az.gov/476/Elections
- Pima County: https://webcms.pima.gov/government/elections_department/
- Navajo County: https://navajocountyaz.gov/departments/elections
- La Paz County: https://www.co.la-paz.az.us/162/Elections
- Yavapai County: https://yavapaiaz.gov/govote/
- Yuma County: https://www.yumacountyaz.gov/government/voter-election-services/widget-pages/2022-elections
Related links:
- 2022 Arizona Election: How to watch ballot counting livestreams, track county results
- 2022 Election: How Maricopa County tabulates votes
- 2022 Election: Judge puts narrow limit on ballot box monitoring amid intimidation concerns; live updates
- 2022 Election: Libertarian ends Arizona Senate bid, endorses GOP’s Masters
- 2022 Arizona General Election voter guide: What you need to know
- 2022 Election: Taking a closer look at Arizona's ballot proposition measures
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A voter places a ballot in a drop box outside of the Maricopa County Elections Department on August 02, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. Arizonans are heading to the polls to vote in the state's midterm primary election. (File photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty
The Associated Press contributed to this report.