PHOENIX, Arizona – State and county officials, and Republican Party officials who sued over discrepancies in the way Arizona counties check voter signatures on early ballots, agreed Friday to a settlement that allows the verification process to continue until 5 p.m. Nov. 14.
That could have an impact on the tight Senate race between Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally. Sinema regained the lead earlier this week and at the end of Sunday evening had expanded her lead to 32,169 votes, with McSally at 1,039,778 and Sinema at 1,071,947.
Meanwhile, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office continues to whittle away at its pile of uncounted ballots, which totaled more than 300,000 on Friday. County Recorder Adrian Fontes told the Associated Press that the count is expected to wrap up Nov. 15. That process is independent of the settlement, which deals with the verification, or curing, of ballot signatures.
The Republican parties in Apache, Maricopa, Navajo and Yuma counties filed the suit against all 15 Arizona county recorders as well as Secretary of State Michele Reagan late Wednesday. The agreement announced in Maricopa County Superior Court, allows all 15 counties in Arizona to cure the remaining early ballots until next Wednesday.
The process works like this: Voters are required to sign the back of his or her early ballot envelope. That signature is compared to the one used to register to vote and other recorded documents on file with the Recorder's office. If the signatures don’t look similar, the voter will be contacted to confirm it is in fact their ballot. The four counties named in the suit allow for longer times for verification; Republican officials claimed that disenfranchised voters in the other 11, mostly rural, counties.
The Maricopa County Elections Department updated results Sunday at 5 p.m., and reported there were approximately 162,000 ballots left to process for the 2018 General Election, with 215,000 votes reported remaining throughout all the counties.
The remaining ballots are early, provisional and out-of-precinct ballots that voters cast or dropped off on Election Day.
"Some of the ballots we are currently processing require extra attention and research. We are taking the time needed to make sure every voter's voice is heard," Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said.
Election officials expect tabulation to continue for several more days, and will update the results daily at 5 p.m.
Election results for Maricopa County are available at www.Maricopa.Vote. State wide results are at the Secretary of State website https://azsos.gov/