Mark Kelly, Katie Hobbs Extend Lead After Latest Arizona Vote Drop

Arizona Democrats improved their lead in key races after the latest round of votes were counted Wednesday night.

Senator Mark Kelly, who is running as the incumbent, now leads Republican nominee Blake Masters 51.4 percent to 46.4 percent, reported CNN and The New York Times.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs also extended her lead over Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent. Both Lake and Masters have been endorsed for office by former President Donald Trump.

In the latest ballot drop, 62,000 votes had been counted out of the 1.43 million cast on Tuesday, according to a report from CNN. There are roughly 410,000 votes left to count.

CNN reported that Kelly gained 7,320 votes and Hobbs won 4,960 votes in Maricopa County, which surrounds the state capital Phoenix.

Lake was predicted to lead the gubernatorial race, according to polling data released Monday showing the Republican ahead of her opponent by nearly 2 points. Masters, on the other hand, was practically tied with Kelly in the days leading to the election.

Some polling locations in Maricopa County had faced issues with tabulation machines during voting on Tuesday, leading Lake's campaign team to call for extended voting hours, alleging that Republican voters had been "disenfranchised."

During her watch party Tuesday night, Lake told supporters that Republicans "had a big day" and to "not let those cheaters and crooks think anything different," casting additional doubt on the election process in the county.

"How do you get fair and free elections?" Lake said to the crowd. "You have to fight and win to make them fair and free. And we needed another stark reminder that we have incompetent people running the show in Arizona."

Speaking with Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, Lake said that she felt "100 percent certain I'm going to win."

"We're only down by a few thousand votes right now, when those votes come in we're gonna see a lot of liberal minds blowing up," she added.

Masters on Tuesday morning retweeted a post from his press team saying that his team was "confident" they would win with the remaining ballots outstanding.

Hobbs posted a statement on her Twitter account Tuesday night saying that she had "confidence that the counties administering this election conducted a free and fair election, and their results will be accurate."

"We must all be patient and wait for every last vote to be counted," Hobbs wrote.

Both races in Arizona are still too early to call as of Wednesday evening.

Newsweek reached out to press teams of Hobbs, Kelly, Masters and Lake for comment on the latest vote drop.

Update 11/09/22, 10:27 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional info and background.

Correction 11/10/22, 4:32 p.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect that Hobbs is the current secretary of state of Arizona.