Too Close To Call
What looked like a Republican win on Election Night slipped away in the succeeding days.  Republicans were particularly critical of Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, who they said was using different procedures in the general election than in the primary.
A major question at issue was whether Arizona's 15 counties were using the same procedures for verifying signatures on mail-in ballots.  Republicans were concerned that officials in some urban counties were going to greater lengths to verify questionable ballots than officials in rural counties, which might tend to favor Sinema in the too-close-to-call Senate race. 

Maricopa County sent this bulletin at 11/07/2018 04:05 PM MST

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               November 7, 2018

About 472,000 ballots left to process in Maricopa County 

PHOENIX—The Maricopa County Elections Department has approximately 472,000 ballots left to process for the 2018 General Election. 

Election Officials estimate about 195,000 of these are early ballots, provisional and out-of-precinct ballots that voters cast or dropped off on Election Day. Additionally, about 277,000 early ballots that the Elections Department received before Nov. 6 must be tabulated. 

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes expects tabulation to continue for several days. He added that officials will update the results daily at 5 p.m. starting Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. Election results are available at www.Maricopa.Vote. Precinct-level data is available here: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/electionresults/.

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                                   Contact: Sophia Solis

TWEET from AZ GOP Chairman Jonathan W. Lines
@JWLines
We want all 15 counties to adhere to the same standards and timeline in fixing possible signature discrepancies on mail-in ballots. Honestly can't understand how anyone would disagree with this. Voters have rights regardless of where they live.
Maricopa County sent this bulletin at 11/08/2018 05:01 PM MST

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               November 8, 2018

About 345,000 ballots left to process in Maricopa County 

PHOENIX—The Maricopa County Elections Department has approximately 345,000 ballots left to process for the 2018 General Election. 

Election Officials estimate about 195,000 of these are early ballots, provisional and out-of-precinct ballots that voters cast or dropped off on Election Day. Additionally, about 150,000 early ballots that the Elections Department received before Nov. 6 must be tabulated. 

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes expects tabulation to continue for several days. Officials will update the results daily at 5 p.m.  

Election results are available at www.Maricopa.Vote. Precinct-level data is available here: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/electionresults/.

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                                   Contact: Sophia Solis

Pima County Recorder's Office
DATE: NOVEMBER 8, 2018
CONTACT: F. ANN RODRIGUEZ

EARLY VOTED BALLOT UPDATE

FOR THE 2018-GENERAL ELECTION

During thc 2018-General Election, the Pima County Recorder's Office mailed over 418,000 Ballot by Mail out to Pima County Votcrs. In addition, they had almost 7,800 ballots voted at our Early Voting Sites. F. Ann Rodriguez stated, "Our early voting numbers rival and in some instances surpass the 2016 General Election. lt' s great to see the increased voter participation in a Mid-Term Election."

As of Thursday, November 8 the Recorder's Office has completcd the signature verification process for all early ballots including those that were droppcd off at polling locations on Election Day. A total of 311,644 ballots have been signature verified by the Pima County Recorder Office for this Election and turned over for tabulation

Thc Recorder's Office will continue to reach out to voters who have questionable signatures. Those voters will have until 5:00 p.m. Saturday, November 10, 2018 to contact our office at 520- 724-4330 and ask for thc "Problem Ballot Team".  Wc will start the provisional ballot verification of the approximately 18,300 on Friday morning, November 9th. The office will be verifying Provisional Ballots until all ballots are reviewed and verified for final determination.

Thc Recorder's Office posts voter ballot status on the www.recorder.pima.gov website. Just click on "Ballot by Mail Status" to see if your ballot has been turncd over to the Department of Elections for tabulation.

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Sinema for Arizona
Nov. 9, 2018

Update on Ongoing Ballot Count in Arizona Senate Race

As Arizona county recorders continue to count ballots cast during Arizona's early voting period and on Election Day, Sinema for Arizona Campaign Manager Andrew Piatt released the following update about ballots counted as of this morning in the Arizona Senate race:

"Yesterday and this morning confirmed our expectation that as the ballots are counted, Kyrsten will steadily build her advantage. Based on ballots counted yesterday and this morning from Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, Apache, Yavapai, Yuma, Gila, Mohave, and Cochise counties, Kyrsten netted 26,236 votes and took a 9,163 vote lead.

"We are confident trends will continue in Kyrsten's direction and that she will be elected Arizona's next U.S. Senator."

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Arizona Republican Party
November 9, 2018

Statement from Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Lines Regarding Today's Settlement

"From the beginning, we have ahvays had one goal: fair treatment of ali voters, regardless of which county they live in. 

"Today's settlement ensures that voters in ali of Arizona 's 15 counties, particularly those 11 rural counties that had not been planning to continue with ballot rehabilitation, will have their voices heard.

"l am still very disappointed in the conduct of County Recorder Adrian Fontes. His lack of respect for the rule of law and his willful destruction of evidence should not be forgotten. There must be a full accounting of his actions. We will not forget, nor allow this settlement to sweep his possible misconduct under the rug."
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Maricopa County sent this bulletin at 11/09/2018 05:03 PM MST

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               November 9, 2018

Maricopa County updated results at 5 p.m. About 266,000 ballots left to process

PHOENIX—The Maricopa County Elections Department updated results today at 5 p.m., and has approximately 266,000 ballots left to process for the 2018 General Election. 

Election Officials estimate about 195,000 of these are early ballots, provisional and out-of-precinct ballots that voters cast or dropped off on Election Day. Additionally, about 71,000 early ballots that the Elections Department received before Nov. 6 must be tabulated. 

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes expects tabulation to continue for several days. Officials will update the results daily at 5 p.m.  

Election results for Maricopa County are available at www.Maricopa.Vote. Precinct-level data is available here: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/electionresults/.

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                                   Contact: Sophia Solis

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               November 9, 2018

Statement from Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes on questions over the preservation of evidence 

PHOENIX—In response to recent GOP questions regarding the preservation of evidence, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes released this statement: 

"There are two parts to this issue, the ballot and the envelope. The GOP asked me to sequester both as evidence. Keeping the ballots separate and uncounted is illegal, and I refuse to disenfranchise voters. But, I still have the envelopes. So if they want to sue me for something I understand the Clerk's Office is open until 5 p.m."

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                                   Contact: Sophia Solis

Arizona Republican Party
FOR IMMEDlATE RELEASE
November 10, 2018

Arizona Republican Party Requests All Communic:ations Between Fontes' Office, Sinema Campaign and Sinema Ailies

PHOENIX - The Arizona Republican Party today submitted a public records request to the office of the Maricopa County Recorder requesting all communications between Maricopa County
Recorder Adrian Fontes' Office and the Sinema campaign and her allies.

This move follows a series of questionable and possibly illegal decisions made by Adrian Fontes, including opening voter centers for non-emergencies the weekend beíore the election. and curing ballots in the general, but not the pnmary election.
Adrian Fontes also told radio hosts Mac and Gaydos yesterday that "nothing had changed" about the electíons process between 1he 2016 and 2018 elections. This is untrue even if just looking at the 2018 primary versus 2018 general election where ballots were cured in thc general but not the primary.

"Adrlan Fontcs has intentionallly clrcumvented the legislative and judicial process durimg this election." said Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Lines. "He is a liberal activist masqueradíng as an electíon official, and we cannot trust him to oversee this process. Arizonans
have a right to know what liberal politics Fontes is communicating with about this race, and what he is telling them. \Vhat is Adrian Fontes hiding?"