The Santa Rita Prickly Pear (Opuntia gosseliniana) is naturally Purple. So is Arizona, absent the influx of dark-money Koch dollars.
Well, well, well. Now we know why the GOP has been trying so hard to keep votes from being counted in Arizona.
As famously said: by Paul Weyrich, father of the Heritage Foundation, “Our (GOP) leverage goes up as the voting populace goes down..”
The GOP lawyers trotted out the ol “Equal protection” argument again in AZ which served them well in Bush v Gore. For you youngun’s, that cute little idea was that “votes were being counted differently everywhere across Florida” so we must STOP THE COUNT WHILE BUSH IS AHEAD!
It’s a sweet argument — Since localities largely run elections differently EVERYWHERE IN THE US, It can be used to stop votes from being counted at just the right time, whenever scumbags politically-motivated legal strategists want to.
Unfortunately (for the GOP) it failed. We can understand the importance of Democrats winning “boring” races like Maricopa County Recorder as we observe Adrian Fontes’ (D- Hero) reaction to the threat.
Imagine how this election would have gone differently if Helen Purcell (R-corruptorincompetent) were still in office?
Sooo, The Judge dismissed the motion. The GOP had their panties all in a twist because in Maricopa (and Pima and Coconino) counties, the recorders go the extra mile to contact voters whose signatures don’t match the mail-in ballot and give them a chance to verify it (Instead of just tossing it.) And they do this with “equal protection” to all ballots, even if the ballots are received on election day. Which adds a few days to finalizing the election. And the Terrible horrible thing is that these are Dem-leaning counties who steal the election by letting everyone vote!
The solution was that Republican counties have now forced themselves to use this process (which they could have done anyway.)
So... votes are free to be counted, now! and we have gorgeous purply results.
Yes, we lost Governor, BUT….
DEMS ARE ON TRACK TO FLIP 4 STATE HOUSE SEATS! (And maybe one state senate seat).. Leaving the State house the most purple its been for over 50 years!
AND as of 9 AM with 350k more votes to count in mostly Dem-friendly areas: (Per Steve Farley)
- Sandra Kennedy (D) overtook R Glassman for 2nd Corporation Commission seat,
- Krysten Sinema (D) leads R McSally for US Senate by 20,203 & increasing,
- Kathy Hoffman (D) leads Riggs for State Superintendent of Public Instruction by 31,886, and
- Katie Hobbs (D) has cut Gaynor's lead in half for SOS and is only 10,609 behind… (hey Kos folks, can you update that race to undecided in spreadsheet?)
- And (even before these votes were counted AZ already had flipped our Congressional delegation with the election of Ann Kirkpatrick, and 5 of the 9 AZ congresspeople will be Democrats!
-— We have a major “blue-shift” going on in AZ….
Cross your fingers that we pick up another State senate seat, US Senate AND Secretary of State!!
For up-to-date results:
Also DONATE! AZ Dems are most decidedly NOT flush with cash!
And a shout out to local Tohono O’odham indivisible organizer Gabriella Cezares-Kelly
Update 11/10 7:10 PM MST
With (slightly red) Navajo Co. posting 400 ballots, and (blue) Coconino posting 3500
Sinema adds 1k to total to lead by 1.4% 29,832
Katie Hobbs (SOS) has 50% of the vote (trailing by less than .1% or 2000 votes)!!!!!
Update 11/10 6:06 PM
Per blugrlinrdst www.dailykos.com/...
What remains: (besides Maricopa)
Blue counties, Pima, Coconino, Apache with roughly 46,000 votes left to count.
Red counties Pinal, Navajo, La Paz, Cochise with roughly 24,000 votes to count.
Margins in Pima are better for Sinema than margins in Pinal are for McSally, and there are 15k more votes in Pima than Pinal. Sinema should pick up votes from all of the counties remaining outside of Maricopa.
I believe 198k Remaining Maricopa ballots are likely to add at least slightly to Sinema’s lead.
At this point I will offer 10 to 1 odds that Sinema wins!!! Anyone want to bet?
Update 5:04 PM MST
Maricopa has posted about 40k votes.
Updated Results:
- Sinema leads by 1.36% or 28,688 votes!
- Katie Hobbs (SOS) only trails by .2% or 3,120 votes!
- Kathie Hoffman (Supe of Schools) now leads by 2% 42,313 votes, and looks like a certain win!
- Sandra Kennedy has increased her lead to about 3,600 votes.
- Christine Porter Marsh (State Senate) is only trailing by 617 votes!!
Update 11/10 4:43 PM (MST)
With the addition of 700 from Mojave and something less than 25,000 from Pima.
Not only has Sinema enlarged her lead but Katie Hobbs trails by only .4% (6,203) AND:
Sandra Kennedy (Corporation Commission) is now in 1st place! Can’t tell you how happy this makes me! We need Kennedy! We need solar and good oversight of our utilities!!
Bonus section: The failed spoiler: Angela Green ---
With 49k votes, Angela Green (G) (though not endorsed by the Green Party,) was almost a spoiler. There’s many questions here.. Was she just a Useful Idiot for the Republicans — (or is she an R in a green dress?)
The AZ GOP promoted her attractive smiling face with fakey flyers they dropped at Dem houses in liberal-leaning neighborhoods that said OH No She’s soooo Liberal, just like Bernie!!
She eventually withdrew from the race, but failed to update her website with that info until one day before the election. (And continued to solicit donations on her website).
I’m also suspicious of a candidate whose platform includes the strange buzz-word terms
- Organic Clean Energy and
- Millennial Entrepreneurship Growth
But gives no explanation of her plans to achieve these nebulous terms Clueless or evil? Pawn or a player? I’m not sure.
