ARIZONA, USA — After months of primaries and campaign events, the midterm election that will determine the balance of power in our nation and right here in Arizona is finally here.
Tabulator errors were reported early Tuesday, but officials say by the time polls closed at 7 p.m. that the issues at all 60 polling locations were addressed.
Live updates:
Wednesday:
10:15 p.m.
12News reporter Jonathan McCall looks at the latest election results in Maricopa County, Arizona.
10:00 p.m.
Maricopa County elections officials say there are 400,000 - 410,000 remaining ballots to be counted. County officials expect 95 to 99% of ballots to be counted by Friday.
8:10 p.m.
Maricopa County election officials issued a statement Wednesday evening, apologizing for the printer snafu at various polling locations throughout the Valley.
7:40 p.m.
Maricopa County had 290K early ballots dropped off on Election Day.
6:55 p.m.
Maricopa County's latest ballot drop shows small gains for Democrats. Several races remain still too close to call. The new numbers reflect more than 62,000 early ballots received over the weekend in Maricopa County.
SECRETARY OF STATE: Arizona's secretary of state race is too close to call
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Arizona's race for attorney general is too close to call
6:15 p.m
A ballot update from Pima County puts Democrat Kris Mayes ahead of Republican Abe Hamadeh for attorney general by 47 votes.
5 p.m.
More results are expected in the 6 p.m. hour
4:45 p.m.
Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly she was pleased with how well the election was administered.
“I think we had a really tremendous cycle,” Cázares-Kelly said. “We saw enthusiastic, determined voters who were excited to participate in our democracy.”
The Elections Department will continue counting early and provisional ballots through early next week. Following that, Elections will conduct the statutorily required hand count audit of ballots on Nov. 12.
Early Ballots at Elections To be Counted: 54,000
4:30 p.m.
Approximately 650,000 ballots still need to be counted in Arizona
3:45 p.m.
The latest ballot dump shows Abe Hamadeh taking the lead over Kris Mayes for attorney general and the race between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake tightens.
11:45 a.m.
Pinal County is reporting that most all of their ballots have had their signatures verified.
80,771 Early Ballots were returned, accepted, and counted prior to Election Day. 35,695 ballots were voted in-person at the polls.
Officials say that there are 26,576 ballots that still need to be processed and tabulated, and most of those are early ballots that were placed in drop boxes since Saturday.
Roughly 19,500 still need to go through signature verification before being counted. 1713 provisional ballots remain to be counted.
9:40 a.m.
Maricopa County has around 400,000 ballots left to verify, county board of supervisors chairman Bill Gates said at a press conference Wednesday morning. The ballots will be counted each day through Friday, with an update posted each night.
"Box 3" became a controversial topic on Election Day after tabulator errors caused some voters to insert their ballots into a drop box rather than having them counted at the vote center.
However, only 7% of the in-person votes cast on election day went into "box 3," Gates said. That equals around 17,000 votes.
Long lines were also seen yesterday, but Gates attributed that to in-person Election Day turnout this year being higher than in the 2020 presidential race, even though total voter turnout this year was lower than in 2020.
Gates also responded to Arizona GOP claims that Maricopa County's election was "illegal."
"Referring to comments like 'criminal' or 'rigged'... I don't know what they're talking about," Gates said. "This election is getting pretty scrutinized. We welcome the scrutiny."
7:15 a.m.
3 a.m.
Midnight
Arizona voters have rejected one of three ballot measures that would take away some of their rights to pass their own laws.
Tuesday:
11:10 p.m.
A few races remain still too close to call. Read our coverage of those races here:
SECRETARY OF STATE: Arizona's secretary of state race is too close to call
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Arizona's race for attorney general is too close to call
11:01 p.m.
The quiet scene outside of the Maricopa County elections office. Two protestors outside the office with a handful of MCSO deputies outside.
10:41 p.m.
The 3rd batch of election results arrived around 10:42 p.m. An additional 14,000 ballots were counted in this batch.
In top races, Katie Hobbs still leads Lake 56% to 44%, with 50% of the votes counted.
While Mark Kelly holds an early lead, 57% to 41% over Blake Masters.
10:30 p.m.
Latest updates on Arizona's Senate race
10:20 p.m. Kari Lake addressed her followers late Tuesday night, calling attention to some of the issues voting centers faced earlier in the day.
As of 10:20 p.m., Katie Hobbs leads Lake 56.7% to 43.3%, with 47% of the votes counted.
9:59 p.m.
Raul Grijalva wins 7th Congressional District, results show. The veteran congressman was first elected to Congress in 2002 and has gotten re-elected in every election since then.
The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night in favor of Grijalva. As of 9:45 p.m., the Democrat was ahead by about 38,000 votes.
9:32 p.m.
The second batch of results has been posted.
The additional 4,684 ballots are from 9 sites in the Central Corridor, the Maricopa County Elections Department said.
9:11 p.m.
Democrat Ruben Gallego wins reelection to U.S. House in Arizona's 3rd Congressional District, according to AP.
FULL STORY: Ruben Gallego wins 3rd Congressional District
8:57 p.m.
Latest updates from the Arizona Governor race between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake.
8:28 p.m.
8:22 p.m.
Republican Paul Gosar wins another term in Congress.
Gosar has represented Arizona since 2011. The 9th Congressional District, includes Kingman, Bullhead City, La Paz County, Wickenburg, and the northern portion of Yuma County.
8:18 p.m.
Democratic candidate for governor in Arizona is addressing the crowd at her Election Day watch party.
Hobbs told the crowd "we are feeling good about what we're seeing" after early election results were posted at the top of the hour.
8:05 p.m.
The Maricopa County Elections Department says that the first batch of unofficial results is now posted.
Early tallies show that 843,333 voters cast a ballot in the county, which is representative of about 34.63% of eligible voters.
These votes represent early ballots that have been received, verified and processed as of Nov. 5.
The county still expects 150,000 to 250,000 early ballots to be dropped off today.
Visit Maricopa County's election site for updated information.
7:52 p.m.
Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego is at the Democratic watch party on Tuesday evening.
7:30 p.m.
WATCH: Maricopa County election officials share an update after polls close.
7:22 p.m.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates gives an update now that polls have closed.
Gates says so far 245,000 voters were cast in person today. This will grow due to voters still waiting in line to cast a ballot.
He then added that by the time the polls had closed at 7 p.m. issues at all 60 voting centers had been addressed.
7 p.m.
A judge has denied a motion filed by Republican lawyers to extend polling hours in Maricopa County.
5:35 p.m.
"The Maricopa County Elections Department provides live video feeds inside the Department to provide public access to the elections process," according to the elections department website.
Click here for live feeds from Maricopa County Elections Department.
4:55 p.m.
BREAKING: The Republican National Committee, Kari Lake, Blake Masters sue Maricopa County to keep vote centers open three hours longer, until 10 p.m. AZ time.
4:30 p.m.
The line to vote at Anthem Outlet Mall is extending past the food court.
Several people tell 12News' Adriana Loya they've been waiting for about 3 hours.
4:21 p.m.
Election officials say that 47 of the voting centers impacted by the printer issues are back up and running.
3:55 p.m.
The Secretary of State's office says the printers were tested before certification and were fine. But they were not "stress tested".
The office says stress testing means that "counties are responsible for thoroughly testing the printer settings to ensure they can work at high capacity,"
Below is the full information from the Secretary of State's office:
"Maricopa's pre-election L&A testing was completed accurately and in accordance with the law.
The ballot-on-demand printers that we've seen issues with today passed tabulation tests during L&A testing and were working properly during this year's primaries and early voting period.
Stress testing the printing settings on these particular printers is not part of the state's L&A process, as the vast majority of ballots are printed by a county vendor.
Maricopa is taking steps to resolve the issue. State and local election officials are committed to making sure every Arizonan's voice is heard."
2:20 p.m.
Maricopa County officials said printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on some ballots which is why tabulators were having issues.
Technicians have been deployed throughout the county to fix the problem.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer apologized for the inconvenience and insisted that every legal vote will be tabulated.
12:30 p.m.
The Arizona Secretary of State's Officer released the following statement regarding the tabulator errors:
"Voters in Maricopa County can be confident that their votes will be counted and their voices will be heard. Ballots that aren’t tabulated at a voting center will be tabulated at the central count facility later today. Election officials contingency plan for a multitude of scenarios. Our focus right now is on ensuring that voters know their ballots will be counted."
12:20 p.m.
Maricopa County's election is once again in the national spotlight due to multiple tabulator errors early Tuesday morning.
The terms "Maricopa County," "Secretary of State," and "Box 3" were all in the top 30 national trends on Twitter Tuesday.
11:15 a.m.
Maricopa County elections officials have said that at least 77,000 people have voted so far this morning.
8:50 a.m.
Maricopa County election officials said that issues are now affecting around 40 vote centers during a press conference Tuesday morning.
Officials said that at the affected voting centers, one out of every five ballots is not going through the tabulator.
The issue is not stopping people from casting their vote, officials said. Voters who face a tabulation error can still deposit their ballot into a dropbox that will be collected when polls close.
Ballots put into the dropbox will be counted Wednesday morning, the county recorder's officer said.
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Bill Gates clarified that this process is how the vast majority of counties in Arizona handle tabulation errors.
"Everyone is still being able to vote," Gates said. "No one is being disenfranchised. None of this indicates any fraud."
See the entire press conference here:
8:30 a.m.
County officials report tabulation issues are affecting 20 vote centers across Maricopa County.
Around 10% of tabulators are affected, officials told 12News. Each location has two tabulators and officials said the issue may not mean both tabulators are down at every center.
Voters can still check in and cast their vote by putting a ballot in the working machine or dropping it in a secure dropbox.
Technology professionals are on the way to troubleshoot and fix issues, county officials said.
8:11 a.m.
7:30 a.m.
"Over 23,000 people have already checked in in person and successfully voted," said Stephen Richer Maricopa County Recorder. "We have tabulator issues at a few locations, but the backup plan allows those votes to still be tabulated."
6 a.m.
Maricopa County announced that its 223 vote centers are now open. Find the closest location to you and see updated wait times at Locations.Maricopa.Vote.
"Election workers from our community have been preparing for today, to support and assist you in every way they can," said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer. "No matter how you have decided to cast your ballot in this year’s midterm election, we celebrate your participation in our democracy.”
What to expect:
The race for governor has come down to a tight struggle between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs. Both candidates hit the road Monday in a final push to rally supporters across the state.
Control of the U.S. Senate and House could go directly through Arizona as Democratic candidate Sen. Mark Kelly tries to win a full term after taking on the last two years of the late Sen. John McCain’s seat in 2018. He faces a tough challenge from Republican Blake Masters.
There are more than 60 contested races in Arizona. U.S. Senate, governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and the Change Voter ID ballot proposal are of particular national interest.
When should results start coming in?
In the 2020 general election, the first results came in just after 8 p.m., with half of all precincts reporting by 10 p.m
Don't forget, if you haven't yet cast your vote, polls will be open from 6 a.m. - 7 p.m.
RELATED: Counting until 2023? New Arizona law on ballot recounts could prolong wait for midterm results
Updates:
Decision 2022
Track all of our current updates with the upcoming elections in Arizona on our 12News YouTube channel. Subscribe for updates on all of our new uploads.