Counts continue in tight midterms
WASHINGTON – Six days after polls closed in the 2018 midterm elections, some major races remained undecided and legal battles began as politicians expressed concern about the delay in the final results.
Election workers were still counting ballots in Arizona’s Senate race, in which Democrat Kyrsten Sinema held a narrow lead over Republican Martha McSally. In Florida, a recount was underway in both the governor’s and Senate races. In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams refused to concede, though her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, held a 60,000-vote lead and claimed victory.
Where the races stand:
Arizona
As of Sunday night, Sinema led McSally by 32,292 votes, or 1.5 percent. About 215,000 votes were left uncounted, and McSally faces an uphill battle because Sinema won three of the four counties where there were uncounted ballots.
To tie the race, McSally would have to beat Sinema by about 15 percentage points in the remaining ballots, according to an analysis by The Arizona Republic. According to the Republic, the delay in the result is mostly due to the need to verify signatures for voters who voted by mail.
“With the latest ballot count, Kyrsten’s lead is insurmountable,” Andrew Piatt, Sinema’s campaign manager, said Sunday. McSally’s campaign called on voters to report any voting irregularities they might have experienced.
Florida
The state that was home to the mostwatched recount in history in 2000 is amid a statewide machine recount of more than 8 million votes.
Florida’s secretary of state ordered recounts Saturday for the Senate race – in which Republican Gov. Rick Scott held a 12,562-vote, or 0.15 percent, lead over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson – and the race for governor, in which Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis led Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by fewer than 34,000 votes, or a margin of .41 percent, accord- ing to the Florida Division of Elections.
The recount must be completed by 3 p.m. Thursday.
Nelson filed a lawsuit Monday against the Florida Department of State asking that ballots be counted that were postmarked before Election Day but didn’t arrive until after the polls closed.
Scott, who filed legal motions trying to make sure ineligible votes aren’t counted, accused officials in the Democratic strongholds of Broward and Palm Beach Counties of “rampant fraud” and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. Broward Chief Circuit Chief Judge Jack Tuter said Monday that he saw no evidence of fraud in Broward County and urged both sides to “ramp down the rhetoric.”
Georgia
The race for Georgia’s open governor’s seat remained undeclared. Abrams said thousands of uncounted provisional ballots could push her into recount territory. Kemp, her opponent, held a 58,875-vote, or 1.5 percent, lead.
Saturday, Kemp’s campaign accused Abrams of ignoring the will of the people and “making up numbers” to keep the race alive. “Abrams’ antics are a disgrace to democracy and completely ignore the will of the people,” the Kemp campaign said in a statement.
Abrams accused Kemp of “voter suppression” by disproportionately rejecting African-American voter registration applications before the election. Sunday, her campaign filed a lawsuit challenging the rejection of absentee and provisional ballots.
House races
Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives; the question is how large their majority will be.
Nine House races were uncalled by the Associated Press: three in California, one in Georgia, one in Maine, one in New Jersey, two in New York and one in Utah. Republicans led in five of those races. If margins hold, Democrats would end up with 231 House seats (they had 193 before the election), and Republicans would have 204 (down from 235).