Judy: As we have been reporting,
we are not likely to know the
results of some of last night's
contests for some time.
In one state, the U.S. Senate
seat one not be decided for
another four weeks.
Amna nawaz is back with more on
those races.
Amna: That's right.
Arizona, races for governor and
senate Arnett and neck with two
thirds of the votes tallied.
For a look at the latest from on
the ground, we turn to Stephanie
sy who has been tracking this
results.
Good to see you.
Those are some key races we do
not have calls in.
What are the latest tallies
telling you?
Stephanie: The associated press
has not made calls on any of
Arizona's top ticket races.
I want to be careful to not draw
any conclusions here because
there are hundreds of thousands
of ballots primarily in maricopa
county that have yet to be
counted.
Those were voters that voted
yesterday, were who dropped off
ballots yesterday, and by
Arizona law, all of those
ballots, and they say there are
more of those dropped off
ballots yesterday than they have
ever had, all of those have to
be signature verified and
processed before they can be
counted.
We do have results from the key
races that can show you where
the races stand currently,
starting with the senate race
that you referred to.
Democratic incumbent mark Kelly
is leading his opponent, Blake
masters, in that race by nearly
There is any 3000 votes
separating those two.
The governor's race which Lisa
talked about earlier between
Democrat Katie Hobbs and
trump-endorsed Kari lake, is an
absolute tossup.
Hobbs has a razor thin lead.
It is at .2% right now.
Anything less than .5% would
trigger an automatic recount in
Arizona.
I also want to take a look at
the current results for the race
of secretary of state, which we
have been following closely.
It involves the Democrat Adrian
Fontes, the former maricopa
county recorder in 2020.
He is facing off against state
representative mark Fincham, who
we have mentioned a lot on this
program, because he was at the
January 6 rally.
He is a four term state
representative who has led the
efforts, at least in Arizona, to
throw out the results of the
2020 election.
He introduced a bill in the
state congress to that effect,
to throw out the votes of
maricopa county voters in 2020.
Fincham is currently trailing
Fontes by more than 4%.
There are still a lot of votes
that were cast and have not been
counted.
It is too early for anyone to be
celebrating.
What I will say this, this is
closer than a lot of consultants
I spoke to would have expected.
There are more registered
Republicans in Arizona.
It is a Republican leading state
.
As one GOP consultant I spoke to
described, Republicans have
turned out is the best election
cycle in years and made it
competitive.
His take is that Arizona
ultimately is not a trump
Trump certainly has a lot of
enthusiastic supporters here,
but Biden did win Arizona in
2020 by 10,500 votes.
This consultant believes summer
publicans and independents in
particular may be turned off by
the proximity of some of the top
two peak candidates to trump.
Amna: I need to ask you,
yesterday, you reported early on
some equipment issues and -- in
polling locations.
Any fallout from that today?
Stephanie: Quite a bit of
optical fallout, I would say.
We have also learned 17,000
ballots were affected by this
issue.
But the American anti--- the
maricopa county election
officials say no one had a vote
rejected.
They have apologized.
It was a printing problem.
They say every vote will be
counted.
There were delays in both
democratic and Republican
dominated precincts.
One of those voting centers in
particular in anthem, Arizona,
which is a very conservative
district, got a lot of attention
for what were reportedly hours
long delays.
Got a lot of attention on social
media among far right
influencers.
And that does create a problem
for maricopa county.
The issue has moved to the
forefront of the conversation,
especially with people who were
already spreading disinformation
about 2020.
That includes the GOP
gubernatorial candidate, Kari
lake.
I want to play some sound from
her from last night.
That is followed by sound from
her opponent, the secretary of
state Katie Hobbs.
Let's listen.
>> We had a big day today, and
don't let those cheaters and
corks think anything different.
Don't let them put doubt in you.
>> We know my opponent and her
allies have been sowing doubt
and confusion throughout this
campaign.
It is unacceptable that they
were spreading misinformation
today while people were
exercising their freedom to
vote.
>> You can see the contrast
between the two candidates
there.
Amna: And some key races in the
key state of Arizona.
Stephanie sy reporting for us
tonight.
Good to see you.
Thank you.
Stephanie: You too.
Amna: Let's turn now to Georgia
where the state's U.S. Senate
race is headed for a runoff
after neither candidate managed
to garner 50 percent of the
vote.
Georgia public broadcasting's
Stephen fowler, who has been
monitoring senate results in
that state.
He joins us now.
Thank you for joining us.
Republicans did really well in
Georgia in a number of other
races.
How did this race end up going
to a runoff?
Stephen: You are right,
Republicans did do really well
in Georgia.
That are then expected in some
cases.
You had a Brian Kemp decisively
win reelection against his
opponent, Stacey Abrams.
Whereas Kemp got the 3% of the
vote, nearly one in 10 of the
voters that supported him opted
not to vote for Herschel walker,
the Republican senate candidate.
You have walker's weakness and a
little bit of democratic over
performance by Rafael Warnock,
have this and that race where
nobody cleared the 50% needed to
avoid a runoff according to
Georgia's runoff law.
Amna: There was a libertarian
candidate, we should mention,
garnered 2% of the vote in that
race.
Do we have a sense of where
those voters will break or will
they stay home in a runoff?
Stephen: It is hard to tell.
Georgia's new election law
signed last year changes the
runoff period from nine weeks
to four weeks, which is why we
have a voting in December.
Some of those libertarian voters
are people that do support the
libertarian candidate policies.
Polling before the election
shows many of those were
launched as a protest vote of
Republicans who would not vote
for Herschel walker, but also
could not see themselves voting
for Rafael Warnock.
It depends on the other races
that we have outstanding if
Georgia is in fact the state
that decides control of the
senate.
You could see more people
sitting this race out, fewer
people sitting this rate -- this
race out because it is a crucial
race.
Amna: We have talked a lot about
election deniers.
We should note in Georgia, there
are election defenders who did
very well.
Brad raffensperger for secretary
of state.
Brian Kemp for governor.
Both men resisted pressure by
then president trump to overturn
the results of the 2020
election.
What does their support among
Georgia voters say to you about
how this issue is viewed and
where Georgia voters are on it?
Stephen: Georgia is certainly
tired of election to nihilism --
election denialism.
It was counted three different
times.
The winner was still president
Joe Biden.
Georgia voters have a very low
tolerance for that.
During the primary this year,
there were several trump backed
primary challengers seeking to
unseat Republicans.
Those trump backed candidates
lost by wide margins.
You see in of an electorate,
both a Democrat, independent,
and Republican, that
acknowledged Ryan cap and Brad
raffensperger stood up to those
claims.
That is why you see the two of
them as the top vote getters.
Amna: Briefly, you saw a lot of
early turnout.
Some big numbers in Georgia.
A lot of enthusiasm in these
midterm elections.
Do you see that carrying threw
two this runoff in December?
Stephen: With the amount of
money that has been spent in the
race and the amount of tension
-- attention, you can guarantee
people will be voting in this
Amna:amna: You can guarantee the
rest of the country will be
watching closely.
Stephen fowler joining us.