SPLITTING HAIRS

Democrat Squeaks Out Narrow Win in Arizona AG Race After Recount

The tiny margin of victory for the Democrat inched even closer—but she still prevailed.

Democrat Kris Mayes’ win as Arizona’s new attorney general was validated Thursday after the state held a recount with more than 2.5 million votes. Mayes ultimately held a 0.01 percentage margin over Republican Abe Hamadeh. The recount was initially called when Mayes led Hamadeh by just a little over 500 votes earlier in December. “The purpose of a recount is to ensure accurate vote totals are put forth, as it is reasonable to expect some level of human error in a dynamic, high-stress, deadline intensive process involving counting hundreds of thousands of ballots,” said officials of Pinal County, which found additional votes in the recount for both candidates. Hamadeh wanted a delay because of the newly-found votes and requested for the current Republican attorney general to remain in office until the process was investigated. But a judge denied the request, and Mayes took the lead with an even smaller margin—just 280 votes.