Kari Lake Trails Hobbs by ~26,000 Votes After Sunday’s Maricopa County Results

Officials from Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa, released results from 98,618 ballots Sunday night that broke 54.6 percent in favor of Republican Kari Lake, bringing her closer to Democrat Katie Hobbs.

ABC 15 Data Analyst Garret Archer reported the batch breakdown to be 54.6 percent in favor of Lake and 45.4 percent in favor of Democrat Katie Hobbs, giving Lake a net gain of 8,911 votes. Maricopa County election officials noted in a press release that “nearly all” of the ballots in the batch “were dropped off on Election Day,” which have been widely expected to break for Republican candidates.

Lake trailed Hobbs by 26,011 votes statewide, with 93 percent of the total vote reported as of 9:00 p.m. Eastern, according to the New York Times:

• Hobbs:  1,211,595 – 50.5 percent 
• Lake: 1,185,584  – 49.5 percent

Dave Wasserman, senior editor of the U.S. House of Representatives at the Cook Political Report, implied Lake needed a greater percentage of the vote soon after the results came in and asserted that it is “[e]extremely tough to see how [she] wins now.”

Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh garnered 55.4 percent of Maricopa’s ballot drop and trailed Democrat Kris Mayes by just 11,328 votes as of 9:00 p.m, per the Times: 

• Mayes: 1,181,398 – 50.24 percent 
• Hamadeh: 1,170,070 – 49.76 percent

The results of the U.S. Senate and the Secretary of State races, which the Associated Press called for Democrats on Friday night, were as follows as of 8:50 p.m. after the ballot drop: 

U.S Senate results: 

• Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ): 1,243,400 – 51.6 percent 
• Republican Blake Masters: 1,115,654 – 46.3 percent 
• Libertarian Marc Victor: 50,359 – 2.1 percent 

Secretary of State results:  

• Democrat Adrian Fontes: 1,243,076 – 52.6 percent 
• Republican Mark Finchem: 1,119,888 – 47.4 percent 

Archer also noted that 20,457 ballots that came out of Arizona’s First Congressional District broke in favor of Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), netting him an additional 3,435 votes. In that race, 94 percent of the vote is reported, and the incumbent held an 894 vote lead as of 9:00 p.m., according to the Times. 

“Huge blow to Dems in #AZ01 and their House chances overall,” Wasserman tweeted of the results. 

Following the release of Sunday night’s results, the county estimates its tabulation is 94 percent complete, as another 85,000-95,000 outstanding ballots remain. 

This includes an estimated 5,000 “Election Day ballots to be reported,” an estimated 73,015 “early ballots left to process and tabulate,” an estimated 8,373 “early ballots left to cure,” and about 430 “provisional ballots left to research.”