Arizona 2018 Senate Results: McSally-Sinema Race Still Not Called

PHOENIX, AZ — A battle of two congresswomen for Arizona's open Senate seat may not be called until later in the week, with 1 million votes still to be counted. As of Wednesday morning, Republican Rep. Martha McSally had a 1-point lead over Democrat Kyrsten Sinema,

Whatever happens, Arizona will have its first female senator.

Check back with Patch for updates on this race.

Numerous polling problem reports were posted on social media. In Chandler, a polling location was foreclosed on the eve of Election Day. The election equipment was ready to go inside the polling place, but the building was locked by the landlord. Election workers set up a temporary polling place in the parking lot until the problem could be resolved — possibly by forcibly entering the property to collect the ballots and equipment, according to reports.

Also in Chandler, a voter reported on Twitter that he had to stand in line to receive a ballot because "systems are all down."

At another precinct outside the Chinese Baptist Church in Phoenix, voters were greeted by a man wearing a T-shirt proclaiming "Election Protection" and asking voters to show their driver licenses, according to a tip to ProPublica's Electionland project.

Multiple voting problems in Maricopa County were reported, The Arizona Republic reported. Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes told the newspaper Tuesday morning had been "a typical election day with typical, run-of-the-mill problems."

Five polling places, including the foreclosed Golf Academy of America, weren't ready for voters when they began filing in at 6 a.m. Most problems were quickly resolved, but there have been some other glitches, including precincts that ran out of ballots and voters who stood in a long line, only to be told to come back later.

See Also: 2018 Midterm Election A Referendum On 'Trump's GOP'

An attorney who visited the church to deliver her ballot was alarmed when the man approached her. She told him she did not need a driver’s license to vote, and she said he appeared flummoxed by her response.

Inside the church, poll workers are asking voters to provide the documents they need to vote, indicating that the man outside is not there in an official capacity.

Who's On The Senate Ballot?

Both candidates in the Senate race currently serve in Congress. Sinema, 42, has served Arizona’s 9th District since 2013, and McSally, 52, has served the 2nd District since 2015. Whatever happens, the winner will make history as Arizona’s first female senator.

The Senate seat opened after Sen. Jeff Flake announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, noting at the time that his criticism of President Trump’s hawkish views on immigration — a central issue in Arizona — and ethics made his re-election nearly impossible. The race is expected to be a cliffhanger through Election Day, as polls have fluctuated wildly over the course of the campaign.

The two candidates are running vastly different campaigns. President Trump and his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., have both stumped for McSally, but Sinema has avoided bringing in high-profile surrogates, concentrating instead on smaller events and focusing on centrist voters, independents and Republican women.

Green Party candidate Angela Green dropped out late last week, throwing her support to Sinema and shaking up the already close race. But how much of a boost — if any — it will give the Democrat is anyone’s guess — 60 percent of Arizona voters have already mailed in their ballots, and Green’s name will remain on the ballot.

The Green Party candidate’s withdrawal presents something of a messaging challenge for Sinema, who has tried to distance herself from the Green Party, where she participated in anti-war rallies following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — a past McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and fighter pilot, has capitalized on.

In a campaign ad that showed the two candidates side-by-side, McSally in her military uniform and Sinema in a pink tutu, McSally said:

“Everyone remembers where they were on 9/11. I was deployed to the Middle East. Led airstrikes against the Taliban and was the first woman to fly a fighter jet in combat. I know the price of freedom.

“While we were in harm’s way in uniform, Kyrsten Sinema was protesting us in a pink tutu and denigrating our service. The world is a dangerous place. We need strong leaders who understand the threat and respect our troops. Kyrsten Sinema fails the test.”

Politifact found the assertion to be mostly false, saying that while the picture of Sinema in a pink tutu at an anti-war protest in 2003 is real, there’s now evidence she “digenerated the troops.” Sinema, who was a law student at the time, has said she wore the tutu as “an expression of creativity and self” at the protest, which coincided with International Women’s Day and included live music and dancing.

Though debunked, the ad and McSally’s repeated claims that Sinema hasn’t supported the military show how nasty the campaign has become. In response, Sinema has painted McSally as someone who “will do or say anything to get elected,” including her sprint to the right on immigration and border security, key issues in Arizona and the nation as Trump ramps up his rhetoric on the matter.

McSally, who chairs a border security subcommittee in the House, says Sinema has “very dangerous” positions on immigration and criticized her for voting against two Trump-backed measures that failed in the House this year. But Sinema says she “bucked” her party to support increased funding for border patrol and immigration enforcement.

Last week, both candidates said they support troop deployment to the border to assist Border Patrol agents ahead of the arrival of a caravan of migrants seeking asylum.

Troops “should be a part of our work to gain situational control over the border,” Sinema said in a statement to The Arizona Republic, but added that protecting “endangered families and children who come to America seeking safety” will make the country safer.

Also in a statement to the newspaper, McSally said troops at the border are needed and continue to be effective.

“A larger military presence will provide more assistance at the border,” McSally said. “If we had a secure border, caravans of people wouldn’t be making their way to us.”

The caravan illustrates “the crisis that’s happening at our border every single day, and it just highlights the insanity of the laws we have,” McSally told “Fox and Friends.”

McSally supports a border wall and introduced legislation that guaranteed $38 billion in border security funding, including building a wall and 10,000 new Border Patrol agents, with half of them stationed at ports of entry. Sinema says a border wall is an outdated solution.

“We should have money for drones, night-vision cameras, towers, and more boots on the ground so we can interdict the bad guys smuggling in guns and people and engaging in really dangerous trafficking,” she told Fox News. “We’ve got to put all this together.”

She also thinks vetting and approval processes for asylum seekers takes too long and more judges and administrative support are needed.

“And for the less than 10 percent who do qualify, get them settled in the United States as quickly as possible,” she told Fox.

The danger for both candidates is moving too far to the right in a state where nearly a third of residents are of Latino or Hispanic descent and independent voters outnumber both Republicans and Democrats.

The two candidates have also sparred on health care, another key issue in Arizona, which has the third-highest uninsured rate in the country. Sinema has made health care a central theme in her campaign, and seized on McSally’s vote with the Republican majority to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act. With her vote, McSally favored striking down protections for Arizonans with pre-existing conditions, Simena charged.

“I voted to protect people with pre-existing conditions,” McSally said. “That is just a flat-out lie. We cannot go back to where we were before Obamacare.”

This story includes a tip from ProPublica's Electionland project, which monitors voting problems around the country. If you had trouble voting, or if you saw something you want to tell us about, here’s how:

To report what you see to the Electionland database, you can:

• SMS: Send the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 81380 (standard text message rates apply).
• WhatsApp: Send the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 1-850-909-8683.
• Facebook Messenger: Go to m.me/electionland.
• Submit a tip through this form.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

Lead photo: Arizona voters wait in line in Phoenix to cast their ballots at a polling place during the midterm elections. Arizonans are deciding on a U.S. Senate seat between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, among other local races. (Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images)