2022 US Midterm Elections: What’s the Reason Behind the Delay in Arizona’s Vote Count?

In Arizona, contentious contests for the Senate and governor seats have yet to be decided, as hundreds of thousands of ballots are still being counted.

AP News reported details on why the 2022 US Midterm Elections Arizona is taking so long:

A large number of ballots were dropped off in Arizona's most populous county on 2022 US Midterm Elections, which may have played a role.

Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous and home to Phoenix, projected Wednesday that there were around 400,000 votes still to count, with about 275,000 being "late earlies" from Election Day, which can slow tabulation.

Roughly 17,000 ballots, or about 7% of all ballots cast on Election Day, remain uncounted because of a printing error on Tuesday at about 25% of the county's vote tallying facilities. Republicans requested that the polls remain open, but a judge dismissed their request, saying he didn't see proof that individuals were not permitted to vote. Officials said the results will be counted throughout the week.

Around 8,000 provisional ballots were submitted on Election Day, according to election authorities. These ballots were cast by voters who either did not have proper identification or whose records indicated they had already cast their votes by mail.

Are There Irregularities?

About 200,000 ballots have yet to be counted outside Maricopa County, with most of those located in Pima County, where Tucson is located.

On Wednesday, county officials in remote Cochise County, Arizona opted to challenge a court order that had prevented a hand count of all votes.

Updated vote tallies were revealed at about 6:50 p.m. on Wednesday from Maricopa County, and most Arizona statewide contests remained deadlocked.

Tens of thousands of votes were dropped off at voting centers on Election Day, and the vote-counting process is proceeding according to schedule thanks to the safeguards built into the system.

Hobbs Maintains Lead

Hobbs keeps a comfortable margin of victory over Lake.While the race for governor remained too close to call on Wednesday night, Democratic contender Katie Hobbs increased her lead slightly over Republican nominee Kari Lake, according to AZ Central.

With over 60,000 early votes received in Maricopa County in the days leading up to the election, Hobbs was able to make gains. Although, the Arizona Secretary of State reported that over 600,000 ballots had not yet been counted.

It appears that Lake is doing far better among 2022 US Midterm Elections voters, and since there are still many votes to be tabulated, the lead in the race could change several times over the next few days.

The New York Post earlier reported that due to printer issues, vote-counting equipment in Maricopa County, Arizona, had trouble reading votes, delaying the release of official results until at least Friday, according to Bill Gates, chairman of the county's Board of Supervisors.

Although there were lengthy lineups at several polling places on Tuesday, around 245,000 individuals cast their ballots in person before the polls closed at 9 p.m. ET, Gates told journalists at a media briefing.

After the 2022 US Midterm Elections in Arizona marred by voting technology malfunctions, ink-stained conspiracies, and a lawsuit to extend polling hours, expect more reports on the vote from additional counties and more reliable news updates on US Midterm Election results from authorities and various media organizations.