By Robert Anglen, Sasha Hupka & Corina Vanek || Arizona Republic
The likely outcome of Arizona’s statewide races hinges on what happens in Maricopa County after an Election Day that saw voting equipment glitches, ink-stained conspiracies and a lawsuit to extend polling hours.
County election officials closed out the night with a promise to continue counting all ballots cast in the 2022 midterms.
The tally already includes more than 880,000 ballots they had counted by midnight Tuesday. They estimated residents cast 248,000 ballots in person at polling stations on Election Day.
Equipment problems that affected at least 30% of the county’s voting centers and prompted a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee will not delay results or interrupt the tabulation process, election officials said.
Here are some key takeaways from the day.
What happens Wednesday?
Just before 2 a.m. Wednesday, county officials announced they had wrapped up counting for the night.
Their summary showed 231,482 Election Day ballots had been processed through tabulators, the vote counting machines at the county’s voting centers.
But there are thousands to go.
“Election Day ballots from all 223 sites have been reported!” the Elections Department said in a tweet. “Our staff is now preparing the 10s of 1000s of early ballots dropped off today for signature verification in the morning. We’ll post more results Wednesday night.”
County officials plan to resume counting at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
