(The Center Square) – With the presidency largely in hand, former President Donald Trump currently leads a battleground state that became the litigation center of the political universe following his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
With 72% of Arizona’s ballots processed early Wednesday morning, Trump is leading Harris by 26,079 votes in the race for the state’s 11 Electoral College votes. Trump lost to Biden by little more than 10,000 votes in 2020.
In Maricopa County, Harris leads Trump by 18,374 votes with 88% reporting.
The county, home to more than half of the state’s population, expected 400,000 ballot envelopes to be dropped off on Election Day, not counting the state’s significant contingent of mail-in voters.
There were some confirmed reports of printer malfunctions at voting centers, but county election officials resolved them in short order.
County officials boasted about quickly moving lines, some of which consisted of just a couple of minutes’ wait before voters were handed a ballot. Some voting centers, including Mesa Community College, saw longer wait times. ABC15 captured video of more than 300 students voting at Arizona State University’s Tempe Campus. Maricopa County Elections advised voters to choose alternate locations.
Elsewhere, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said multiple sites in Navajo County received bomb threats on Tuesday afternoon. Multiple news outlets reported voting tabulator malfunctions in Apache County. The FBI later released a statement acknowledging the threats.
Complete election results aren’t expected for nearly two weeks, as has been the norm over the last two decades. Elections officials warned that the two-page ballots with dozens of judicial retention races and ballot propositions would slow things down. Additionally, a new election integrity law enacted this year requires polling station workers to count the number of envelopes before they can deliver ballots to be officially counted. Results lagged through Tuesday night, keeping the percentage of precincts reporting hovering near 50% while other states were announcing results.
Both the Trump and Harris campaigns made Arizona a priority throughout the election cycle, either hosting rallies themselves or sending big-name surrogates.
Campaign volunteers descended on Maricopa County to join local activists who knocked on thousands of doors in the days before the election. Many residents complained about the barrage of phone calls, texts, emails, and flyers from numerous organizations.
