Democrat Kyrsten Sinema took a narrow lead in Arizona’s critical Senate race on Thursday evening, with half a million votes left to count. Going into Thursday’s ballot drop, Republican Martha McSally had led by 17,703 votes, but the latest 160,000 votes counted left Sinema up by 9,610 after her edge among Maricopa County voters expanded. Daily Kos Elections reports that:
There are about 500,000 uncounted ballots statewide, and about 345,000 are in Maricopa County, where Sinema currently leads 50-48. The biggest question right now is whether the remaining Maricopa County ballots will continue to trend Sinema's way, or if this was just an unusually good batch for her. The Associated Press' Nick Riccardi said that this first drop was from ballots mailed in just before Election Day at a time when Democratic turnout was at its highest. However, the county recorder says that about half of the remaining ballots come from this group.
Republicans have filed lawsuits to prevent some votes from being counted, but meanwhile, the counting of uncontested ballots continues with the next numbers slated to be announced at 7 PM ET Friday.