Maricopa County has updated its vote counts with a batch of about 85,000 votes, which has ramifications for a few races that we’re watching in the Grand Canyon State. In the governor’s race, Lake won this batch 52 percent to 48 percent over Hobbs, which reduced Hobbs’s statewide edge just a bit: Hobbs now leads 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent with 88 percent of the expected vote reporting. Per ABC News estimates, around 325,000 votes are yet to be tallied in Arizona, which means Lake needs to win about 55 percent of those votes to catch Hobbs. That means she’s going to need to do better than she did in this latest batch.
In Arizona’s attorney general’s race, meanwhile, Republican Abraham Hamadeh also carried this batch 52 percent to 48 percent against Democrat Kris Mayes. But Mayes still leads, 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent. And in Arizona’s 1st District, a seat that’s entirely in Maricopa, Republican Rep. David Schweikert won 55 percent of the 17,000 votes that were added to the seat’s total with this update. That leaves Democrat Jevin Hodge with a 0.8-percentage-point lead, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent, with 90 percent of the expected vote reporting. Arizona has a Grand Canyon full of tight races, it seems (see our earlier post on the 6th District, too).