The political world’s attention is on Saturday in the western US as officials work through another day to count the votes in key races.
The wafer-thin elections for the Nevada Senate and the Arizona governor have yet to be called. Major counties in both states are working to shrink the tens of thousands of ballots that have yet to be counted.
Races we are watching
In Nevada: Republican Adam Laxalt maintains a narrow lead of about 860 votes over incumbent Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
If Cortez Masto wins, Democrats are expected to take control of the Senate. If she loses, the fate of the upper house will be decided in the second round in Georgia in December.
In Arizona: Democrat Katie Hobbs leads Republican Kari Lake by about 31,000 votes in the governor’s race.
It was a fiery campaign marked by Lake’s baseless claims about the 2020 election and Hobbs’s role as Arizona Secretary of State.
Where we expect results this evening
In both states taking center stage tonight, major counties will release a significant number of results.
Clark County, Nevada: Clark County, Nevada’s most populous city and includes Las Vegas, will release the results of the remaining 22,000 ballots tonight, according to county registrar Joe Gloria.
This set of results will be released “sometime this afternoon or early evening,” he said, estimating it could happen around 7 p.m. ET at the earliest.
Washoe County, Nevada: Washoe County plans to release the next batch of results on Saturday night around 11 p.m. ET, according to election officials.
There are still about 12,000 ballots to be counted there, officials said, although it is not known how many will be in Saturday night’s series of results.
Encompassing Reno, Washoe County is Nevada’s second largest by population and is considered a swing county.
Maricopa County, Arizona: More results are expected around 10 p.m. ET Saturday from Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona.
Election regulator Bill Gates told DailyExpertNews he expects a vote drop similar to last night, when the county reported about 80,000 more votes.
Gates said Friday there are about 275,000 ballots left to count in the county, including Phoenix.
