Live: The latest on Arizona's 2024 election

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Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani won reelection to a U.S. House seat in southeastern Arizona in a rematch that pitted him against the Democrat he narrowly beat two years ago.

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Katherine Davis-Young

Now that Arizona voters have approved a ballot measure to enshrine the right to abortion access in the state constitution, a number of court cases are likely to follow over the state’s existing abortion laws.

Arizona also has dozens of other abortion regulations: There’s a mandatory 24-hour wait for patients seeking abortions; a ban on sending abortion medication by mail; and a requirement that patients have an ultrasound, which may be medically unnecessary.

Victoria López, director of program and strategy with the ACLU of Arizona, said her organization is already working with other groups on possible legal challenges to those laws.

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Republicans are in line to increase their majorities in the Arizona House and Senate, according to the latest election returns.

The Associated Press called a handful of competitive legislative races early Tuesday morning, though Senate races in Yuma’s Legislative District 23 and Pima County’s Legislative District 17 remain too close to call. A handful of House races in Districts 2, 4, 9, 13, 16, 17 also were not called as of Tuesday morning.

If the current results hold, the GOP would have a 17-13 advantage in the Senate and a 33-27 majority in the House – both increases over the two-vote majorities they held last legislative session.

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Democrat Ruben Gallego has been elected Arizona’s first Latino U.S. senator, defeating Republican Kari Lake and preventing Republicans from further padding their Senate majority.

Gallego’s victory continues a string of Democratic successes in a state that was reliably Republican until Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. Arizona voters had rejected Trump-endorsed candidates in every election since, but the president-elect won Arizona this year over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris

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Arizonans passed two ballot initiatives this election cycle that could change the way hot button issues are handled by the state.

Proposition 139 enshrines the right to abortion in the state constitution, while Prop. 314 ushers in harsher penalties for some fentanyl distribution and gives local police the ability to make immigration-related arrests.

Arizona Clean Elections Executive Director Tom Collins says approved measures next head to the governor’s office.

“We have a county canvas that feeds up to the statewide canvas, which is on Nov. 25. After that, the election is certified, and then the governor signs a proclamation declaring that those initiatives and referendums have in fact passed and they become law,” he said.

But Collins says lawsuits often cause delays.

“After an initiative or referendum passes, folks then sue to try to block the initiative referendum from being fully implemented. That happens at the end of every election in my memory,” he said.

Provisions in Prop. 314 will also be on hold until a similar law in Texas is litigated.

Books like "Handmaid’s Tale" and "On Tyranny" have climbed national bestseller charts by hundreds of places since Election Day. But the numbers don’t always reflect what readers are picking up in different areas.

“People have just been looking for more escapism-type books,” said Mary Anne Ramirez, the owner of Books, a general use bookstore in north Phoenix. “We've pulled a lot of fiction and a lot of older history books, like World War II books or books on Arizona, kind of that thing. I think it's more of people not wanting to hear anymore about politics than just wanting something to take their minds off everything that's happened in the past few weeks.”

Ramirez said regardless of current events, people gravitate toward reading what makes them feel good – whether that’s enjoying a novel during a happy time or curling up with a familiar story during a difficult one.

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Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

Arizona has officially been called for now President-Elect Donald Trump. With votes still being counted, republicans in Arizona have kept one competitive seat in Congress for David Schweikert and are ahead in the race to keep incumbent Juan Ciscomani in his seat as well.

And that red wave holds true pretty much from top to bottom on the ballot. The GOP is also on track to maintain control of the state legislature, as well as the County Board of Supervisors and the County Recorder’s Office.

To the surprise of many, the former president appears to have built a broad coalition of voters here and across the country that include a sizable chunk of the Latino vote, some women, many young people and the vast majority of men.

Gina Swoboda, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, joined The Show to talk about what led to this in Arizona.

Hear the full interview →

Election Day was nearly a week ago, and we still don't know for sure the winners in several Arizona races, including Ruben Gallego's race against Kari Lake for an all important U.S. Senate seat.

And while Maricopa County election officials warned us this would happen and that in fact, this is usually how long it takes to count votes in Arizona, our next guest says it is a problem that is fixable.

Laurie Roberts is a columnist for the Arizona Republic, and she joins editorial page editor Elvia Díaz on The Show to talk more about it.

Hear the full interview →

Jean Clare Sarmiento/KJZZ

Arizona’s largest county still has roughly 80,000 uncounted ballots as of Monday. Despite the long wait for decisive results in some close races, state elections officials say they’re pleased with how smoothly Election Day itself went.

The secretary of state reported that more than 3.2 million ballots were cast in this year’s election, many of them mail-in.

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The Arizona Supreme Court declined Sunday to extend the deadline for voters to fix problems with mail-in ballots, a day after voter rights groups cited reports of delays in vote counting and in notification of voters with problem signatures.

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Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Arizona on Sunday. He defeated Republican Kelly Cooper to retain his seat in the state's 4th District, which includes the cities of Tempe, Mesa, and Chandler that are just outside of Phoenix.

Stanton, a former Phoenix mayor, has served in Congress since 2019. He succeeded Kyrsten Sinema, who left the seat to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate.

Ian McKinney/Cronkite News

Republican U.S. Rep. Eli Crane has won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District.

The freshman lawmaker defeated former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, who was vying to become the state’s first Native American representative. The Republican-leaning 2nd District covers a wide swath of Arizona including Prescott, Flagstaff, the eastern part of the state and suburbs north of Tucson. It also includes more than half of the state’s 22 Native American nations.

Republican David Schweikert has won an eighth term in an affluent congressional district in the Phoenix area by fending off a challenge from a Democratic former state lawmaker.

Schweikert defeated Amish Shah, an emergency room doctor, Sunday in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District that includes north Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley.

While Republicans hold a voter registration advantage in the district, it started to trend toward the center after Donald Trump’s 2016 victory as some voters who historically backed Republicans reluctantly voted for Democrats or left their ballots blank.

Joe Rondone/The Arizona Republic/Pool

In a swing district in southern Arizona, a key race for Congress has flipped back and forth multiple times, and is now back in Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani’s favor.

Ciscomani is a first term Congressman representing District 6. His opponent Kirsten Engel is a former state lawmaker whose victory would help keep alive Democrats’ hopes of controlling the U.S. House.

But the race still remains too close to call, with more votes to be counted. Ciscomani beat Engel for the same seat in 2022.

Before running, Ciscomani was a senior advisor and vice chair of the Arizona-Mexico commission under former Republican Governor Doug Ducey. Engel was an environmental lawyer before serving in the state Legislature.

As of Friday evening, Ciscomani was leading by about 1,600 votes.

Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0

Eleven statewide measures were referred to the ballot by Arizona’s legislative Republicans, but only a few were successful.

Four of the ballot measures were successful and seven failed. Republican House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) said it’s because the party decided to use its resources on winning important legislative races rather than garnering support for the propositions.

Toma said that for more complex ballot proposals, voters are inclined to vote “no” unless they fully understand the question.

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Want quicker election results?

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen says the answer is simple: Forbid voters from dropping off their early ballots at polling places on Election Day.

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Democrat Ruben Gallego still narrowly leads Republican Kari Lake in the race for an open U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.

The race remains too close to call, but Lake has continually chipped away at Gallego’s lead day after day.

And according to estimates from the Secretary of State’s Office, there’s still more than 750,000 ballots uncounted statewide.

If Gallego can hold on for victory, it’d be a rare bright spot for Democrats in Arizona, who are so far losing key down ballot races for control of the state Legislature, and trail President-elect Donald Trump in the state’s presidential race.

Lake, a MAGA firebrand who’s still yet to concede her gubernatorial loss two years ago, must continue to gain ground on Gallego to overtake him in a race that may not be called through the weekend.

Deanna Villanueva-Saucedo, the associate vice chancellor of the Center for Excellence in Inclusive Democracy at Maricopa County Community College District, said if voters hadn’t passed the proposition, it would’ve meant major cuts for the community college system.

“We were looking at having to cut $100 million from our budget the following fiscal year," Villanueva-Saucedo said." $100 million is equivalent to the budget of one of our largest colleges or two of our smaller colleges combined, so that would’ve had a significant impact.”

KJZZ is licensed to the Maricopa County Community College District.

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Sky Schaudt/KJZZ

Get early results from the Associated Press for Arizona's 13 statewide ballot measures.

Note that AP has called all the propositions, but election results are not yet official.

See what passed and what failed →

Arizona voters passed Proposition 314 this week. The measure makes crossing the border in between ports of entry a state crime and giving local police immigration-related arrest authority.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said the measure is causing unease in the county seat of Nogales, which is 95% Hispanic.

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Some competitive Arizona legislative races are still too close to call, but updated results from Maricopa county late Thursday favored Republicans. Republicans currently hold one-seat majorities in both the House and state Senate.

New results released Thursday evening show Republicans have boosted their chances of increasing their hold on the House now that Republican Pamela Carter has overtaken incumbent Democrat Kelli Butler in Legislative District 4.

And in a key Senate race in that same district, Republican Carine Werner has increased her lead over incumbent Democrat Christine Marsh. Marsh would need to win to keep alive Democrat’s hopes of a 15-15 split in the Senate.

Losses would be a blow to Democrats after they spent heavily trying to flip the balance of power in the Arizona Legislature.

Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0

In a swing district in southern Arizona, a key race for Congress has now flipped back and forth multiple times, and is currently in Democrat Kirsten Engel’s favor.

Engel is a former state lawmaker running against first-term incumbent Republican Juan Ciscomani in Congressional District 6.

An Engel victory would help keep alive Democrats’ hopes of controlling the U.S. House. But the race still remains too close to call, with more votes to be counted. Ciscomani beat Engel for the same seat in 2022.

Before running, Ciscomani was a senior advisor and vice chair of the Arizona-Mexico Commission under former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. Engel was an environmental lawyer before serving in the state Legislature.

Control of the House is still too close to call, according to the Associated Press. The House likely will not be called this week because of outstanding vote in western states, including Arizona and California, where there are multiple competitive races and a lot of votes left to count.

See 2024 election results: Arizona congressional races

Camryn Sanchez/KJZZ

Democrats’ hopes of at least tying Republicans for control of the Arizona Senate are dwindling.

But a political strategist says it doesn’t matter whether Democrats tie or Republicans keep the majority, voters should expect more of the same from state lawmakers.

There are still many races too close to call in the state House, but if current leads hold, Republicans would control the chamber with 32 seats.

For the state Senate, Democrat Christine Marsh’s early lead was surpassed by Republican Carrie Werner Wednesday night.

Paul Bentz is senior vice president of research and strategy at High Ground public affairs. He says however the legislative races play out, it will still be a contentious two years for lawmakers.

“A significant number of issues that were referred directly by the legislature to the ballot. I suspect that we could see something like that again where they try to bypass the governor altogether and place issues on the ballot. I think it will be a contentious cycle," Bentz said.

Bentz says enthusiasm for President-elect Donald Trump likely carried down the ballot, and limited the amount of Republicans and independents voting for Democrats.

"I think some of the deployment and discussion that they had around particularly immigration and particularly the economy, really cut back on that Republican crossover vote that we've seen in the past," he said.

Bentz says more results Thursday will show if early ballots dropped off on Election Day will lean Democrat or Republican.

“We will never stop fighting to protect the lives of the unborn and their mothers,” said Cathi Herrod, president of the anti-abortion Center for Arizona Policy. “We will continue to advocate that unborn children deserve protection and their mothers deserve to be spared the harms of abortion.”

Proposition 139 passed with support from about 60% of Arizona voters.

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Sky Schaudt/KJZZ

The half-cent sales tax was first established in 1984, then renewed in 2004. If it passes, it will extend for another 20 years and is projected to fund many billions of dollars of transportation projects, including updates to I-10 and I-17.

The measure was referred to the ballot by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, despite the opposition of a far-right caucus.

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Arizona voters have passed Proposition 312, which gives property owners a way to recoup some of the costs of cleaning up certain nuisances if their local government doesn’t.

But an advocacy group that works to end homelessness is concerned it won’t have the effect voters intended.

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Kiersten Edgett/KJZZ

It’s been 48 hours since Election Day, and the story of what happened is just beginning to take shape.

Before the aura of that day and night begins to fade, The Show's Sam Dingman and KJZZ political correspondent Camryn Sanchez wanted to share a few sketches from their reporter’s notebooks that might help give some additional contour as the storylines that will define our historical memory of this election begin to take hold.

Hear the full interview on The Show →

It was something of an odd election for folks on the Navajo Nation. Despite the printer problems at polling places that forced long lines and a last-minute lawsuit to keep polls open late, there were also some places where the tribal ballot was notably sparse.

That’s because nearly 200 candidates were disqualified from the ballot as the result of a new campaign finance law they failed to follow. The penalty? Disqualification.

Now, the question is: What’s next? There’s been talk of a special election, and some candidates are suing.

Donovan Quintero, Navajo Times freelance reporter, joined The Show to discuss.

Hear the full interview on The Show →

Katherine Davis-Young/KJZZ

In the hours after the general election, abortion providers found it difficult to celebrate the passage of Proposition 139, the initiative that enshrines the right to abortion in Arizona’s Constitution.

“I was somewhat uplifted by Prop. 139 passing, but I am deeply concerned about the way the election is finalizing,” Dr. Barbara Zipkin, a Phoenix-based abortion provider, said.

Even though the proposition passed easily, Zipkin is cautious about access since results show that there will be another Donald Trump presidency.

Read the full story on AZPM.org →

Some Arizona legislative races are still too close to call. But updated results from Maricopa County late Wednesday favored Republicans, lessening Democrats’ hopes of tying the state Senate.

There are a handful of competitive state legislative races which will determine which party controls the House and Senate for the next two years. On Wednesday evening, results in a key north Phoenix district for a Senate seat flipped from blue to red.

Christine Marsh, Carine Werner

Democrat Christine Marsh now trails Republican challenger Carrie Werner by about 1,600 votes. If Werner’s lead holds over the next few days, Republicans would maintain their one-seat majority in the Senate.

Elections

2024 election results: Arizona Legislature races

Nick Karmia

Get early results from the Associated Press for Arizona's legislative races.

Engel for Arizona, Ciscomani for Congress

Incumbent Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani has taken a narrow lead over Democrat Kirsten Engel in a competitive rematch in this southern-Arizona congressional district.

Early results on Tuesday showed Engel narrowly leading Ciscomani, but as of Wednesday night, he’d pulled ahead by fewer than 800 votes.

The race remains too close to call, with more votes to be counted. Engel and Ciscomani are battling to represent the 6th Congressional District, which is concentrated around Tucson and includes parts of five counties.

Ciscomani beat Engel for the same seat in 2022. Before running, Cisocmani was a senior advisor and vice chair of the Arizona-Mexico commission under former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. Engel was an environmental lawyer before serving in the state house and Senate.

Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0

Republican Abraham Hamadeh won election to a U.S. House seat representing Arizona on Wednesday. He defeated Democrat Gregory Whitten. Hamadeh is endorsed by presidential nominee Donald Trump and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake. He will represent a region that includes suburbs north and west of Phoenix. He’ll be succeeding Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko, who is a staunch Trump supporter and decided not to run for reelection to the state's 8th District seat. The Associated Press declared Hamadeh the winner at around 7 p.m. Arizona time.

Leaders behind the future of the Colorado River say Donald Trump’s return to the White House will not interfere with ongoing talks about how to share the shrinking water supply.

The seven states that use the river need to come up with new water management rules by 2026.

Arizona’s top water negotiator Tom Buschatzke says his state will press on with its current proposal for new rules.

"This is just about continuing to advocate for that proposal and kind of staying the course regardless of who is sitting in either the political seats in Washington, D.C., in interior, or elsewhere," Buschatzke said.

On the campaign trail, Trump has advocated for policies that would likely worsen climate change, which is the main cause of the drought that’s plagued the Colorado River for more than two decades.

Matthew Casey/KJZZ

Incumbent Republican Andy Biggs won over Democratic challenger Katrina Schaffner.

“We’ve got to continue to try,” Prop. 140 architect Chuck Coughlin said Wednesday. “We've got to continue to try and educate people as to what the source of these conflicts are, why they exist and help them understand what is bedeviling the American political system today.”

Coughlin said he wants to try again, potentially in 2028.

Coughlin argues that Arizona’s existing system makes it easier for “extreme” candidates to advance to the general election, which increases hyperpartisanship and produces elected officials who are only responsive to a minority of the electorate.

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Republican Justin Heap has pulled slightly ahead of Democrat Tim Stringham in the race to become Maricopa County’s next recorder, according to early returns.

Heap, a first-time lawmaker aligned with the Legislature’s Freedom Caucus, campaigned on allegations that Maricopa County’s election systems are in disarray.

He stopped short of claiming widespread fraud impacted the results of past elections but he was endorsed by prominent election deniers like former President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Kari Lake.

Michael Chow, Cheryl Evans/pool photos

Stringham, a first-time political candidate, is an Army and Navy veteran who provided human rights training in countries around the globe.

He says he ran to keep an election denier from taking over the recorder’s office, which runs voter registration, early voting and document recording for the county.   

Emily Mai/Cronkite News

Voters in Sedona overwhelmingly rejected the City Council’s plan to provide parking spaces at a city-owned lot for local workers to live in.

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Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services

A majority of the eleven initiatives referred to the ballot by Arizona’s Republican-led Legislature appear poised to fail. According to the Associated Press, voters rejected three legislative propositions, including proposals to end judicial retention elections, change how individuals can challenge ballot measures and allow business owners to pay some tipped workers below minimum wage

Another four propositions referred by the Legislature are currently trailing by wide margins, but the races have not yet been called. That included measures to add existing laws requiring partisan primaries to the state Constitution; changes to the citizen initiative process; legislative checks on the governor’s emergency powers; and limits on the state agencies’ regulatory powers.

Senate Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein (D-Tempe) called those measures poorly written and argued Republican lawmakers failed to vet the proposals properly. She pointed out that a Republican group in her district actually opposed several of the measures referred by GOP lawmakers.

“They have gotten arrogant and they don't listen to others,” Epstein said. “Not even people in their own party who are outside of the legislature, apparently, so I'm glad to see that the people of Arizona were wise to fail so many of those badly written referenda.”

Epstein specifically criticized Proposition 138, which would have allowed employers to pay some tipped workers below minimum wage. As of Wednesday, it trailed 25%-75% at the polls.

“I am so glad to see that that is failing the worst, because our tipped workers work very hard, and the idea of paying them lower wages is just so wrong,” Epstein said. “Wrong for the economy, wrong for tipped workers and the people of Arizona saw that the proposition was wrong.”

The Associated Press reported voters did approve three other republican propositions, including a measure that allows local law enforcement to enforce immigration law. Voters also passed measures to create a $250,000 death benefit payment for the spouse or children of a first responder who is killed in the line of duty and to impose a mandatory life sentence for individuals convicted of child sex trafficking

A fourth proposal to give tax refunds to property owners affected by public nuisances was in line to pass with 58% of the vote as of Wednesday morning.

It appears that Arizona’s primary election system is not going to change. The Associated Press called Proposition 140's failure on Wednesday morning. The measure would have scrapped partisan primaries in the state.

Proponents argued this would better serve the state’s electorate, a third of whom are independents, and improve the electability of moderate candidates.

But the Republican and Democratic parties both opposed Prop 140.

And GOP lawmakers referred a competing measure to the ballot – Proposition 133, which would codify Arizona’s existing partisan primaries into the state Constitution. That measure was also failing by a wide margin.

If both measures fail, the state’s primary system will remain unchanged.

Christina Estes/KJZZ

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file | staff

Based on early results, it looks like incumbents running for Phoenix City Council will keep their jobs.

After garnering more than 60% of the vote in their districts, Vice Mayor Debra Stark and Councilwoman Betty Guardado have claimed victory. Stark represents District 3, which includes Sunnyslope and Moon Valley neighborhoods, and Guardado represents District 5 which covers west Phoenix.

In northwest Phoenix, District 1 Councilwoman Ann O’Brien ran unopposed.

District 7 saw multiple candidates and two races. Unofficial results show Councilman Carlos Galindo-Elvira will keep his temporary seat through April and community activist Anna Hernandez is on track to win a full four-year term. District 7 includes parts of downtown, south Phoenix, Laveen and Maryvale.

Read the full story →

The Show spoke with ABC 15 data guru Garrett Archer, who has been tirelessly following Arizona election numbers. Here's a snippet:

LAUREN GILGER: We've heard so much about how the Latino vote seems to sway, to seem to sway to Trump yesterday, especially among men. Are we able to extrapolate any of that right now in Arizona?

GARRETT ARCHER: Yes. Yes. So we can extrapolate a little bit of that right now, just based on two of our counties that have the highest Hispanic population in the state. And that's Santa Cruz County and Yuma County. So Santa Cruz is about 85% Hispanic. …

Donald Trump, he didn't win Santa Cruz, but in 2020, he got 31.7%. Right now, he's holding at 40.4%. So that is 8 point advantage, 8 point over performance of where he was in 2020 with Santa Cruz. And then in Yuma County, which is about 60% Hispanic. Donald Trump does have a, you know, Republicans can win that, that county and have in the past. He won it in 2020, 52% of the vote, and, but this time he's winning 65%. So that's a 12 point change in his favor this year. So it does look like Hispanics really did shift pretty, just really did shift in favor of Donald Trump this time.

Listen to the full interview →

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

There were mounting concerns leading up to Election Day that voters and poll workers would face safety threats, that votes would be unfairly counted, that misinformation would rule the day at the polls.

But, things went fairly smoothly. Adrian Fontes, Arizona's secretary of state, joined The Show to tell us why.

Read the full story →

Hear KJZZ's Wayne Schutsky on The Show with host Lauren Gilger

Listen • 7:03

Donald Trump has been elected president once again. And though the race has yet to be called here in Arizona, he holds about a 100,000 vote lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in our state Wednesday morning.

But though the race at the top of the ticket may be over from the Senate to the House to the state Legislature. Winners have yet to be called in many races across the state and the margins are often razor thin here to give us the latest is Wayne Schetky with KJZZ's Politics desk.

Interview highlights

LAUREN GILGER: So let's start at the biggest race that has yet to be called here in Arizona. The race between Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake. Gallego was holding a strong lead for much of the night last night, but it has narrowed.

WAYNE SCHUTSKY: It seems, yeah, that trends with a lot of the other races we've seen where Republicans were trailing and either flip to the lead or close those gaps. But Gallego has maintained a decently sizable lead while some other races have actually flipped.

GILGER: Lake has been underperforming Trump in Arizona and it seems she's sort of a representative of this, this truism in the Trump era that some of his acolytes just don't play as well as, as he tends to.

SCHUTSKY: Yeah. And so she's basically running on the Trump playbook and as you said, other candidates who have tried to do the same thing don't always fare as well. I mean, he had, he had a lot of other things to run on that. She didn't, you know, they're running on, on the current administration and as a referendum on inflation and that kind of thing. And it's just kind of harder to do that when you're one of 100 instead of kind of running a one on one type of campaign.

GILGER: So that's a Senate seat and it's clear now that Republicans will take control of the Senate in Washington next year. But let's turn now to the House where Democrats are trying to flip seats to gain control there. We have two incredibly tight races for congressional seats playing out here in Arizona. Let's start Wayne with CD1, where Democrat Amish Shah is trying to unseat David Schweikert. Schweikert is up nearly 5,000 votes right now, but tell us what's left to be counted. How could that shift the race?

SCHUTSKY: Yeah. So, well, basically what's left to be counted, at least in Maricopa County, is what we call late earlies. Those are the folks that voted using an early mail-in ballot but decided to drop it off on Election Day. So those are the last votes that are counted. I think Democrats are banking on some historic norms that would go their way and that could help Shah, who was leading for most of the night until they started counting all the Election Day votes. They, they're hoping that would flip that back in his direction.

Shah is a former state legislator. He’s really good at knocking on doors so he was able to get a lot of face time in that district. But Schweikert has survived many close challenges from Democrats in recent years.

GILGER: Yeah. OK. Let’s see what happens there. Let's talk about southern Arizona 6th district down there. We've got a rematch essentially there, but it seems to have flipped from last time around.

SCHUTSKY: Yeah, we've got Juan Ciscomani who's a first term Republican congressman, former staffer for former governor Doug Ducey, kind of seen as a rising star among that more moderate, you know, Ducey-type of Republican in the party facing Kirsten Engel, a former Democratic state lawmaker and, but she actually came out with a sizable lead with early results just like the other race that narrowed, but she actually held on to that lead. And, you know, so if those late earlies end up going Democrats’ way as they hope, you could see her unseating him and Democrats flipping that seat.

Mark Brodie/KJZZ

With Republicans holding razor-thin margins in both the Arizona House and Senate, control of the state Legislature hinges on the outcome of just a handful of races. Only a few districts in the state feature competitive races – and most of those are still undecided.

Republicans hold a 31-to-29 majority in the House and a 16-to-14 majority in the Senate. Democrats could force a tie in either chamber by gaining one seat, and could take majority control by gaining two seats.

See early results on the roundup →

Sky Schaudt/KJZZ

Several school districts in Maricopa County were asking voters to approve funding this election.

As of Wednesday morning, here's a rundown on the measures passing and failing so far in early results.

Results for school district bonds and overrides in Maricopa County →

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes joined KJZZ political correspondent Wayne Schutsky and The Show host Lauren Gilger Wednesday morning to discuss election security.

Listen on 91.5 FM, stream on the website or in the KJZZ app for more election coverage.

In a tight race for three open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, three Republicans hold narrow leads as vote-counting continues. If those early results were to hold up, the GOP would have complete control of the powerful 5-seat agency.

The Arizona Corporation Commission regulates most of the state’s utilities like APS and Southwest Gas.

Both Republicans and Democrats are seeking to secure control of the five-member commission by vying for the three seats that are up for grabs this year.

Democrats Ylenia Aguilar, Joshua Polacheck and Jonathon Hill argued the Republican controlled commission has been too deferential to utilities seeking rate increases and that Arizona needs to move towards more clean energy options.

The Republicans, including incumbent commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson, Rachel Walden and Rene Lopez, championed a more diverse mix of energy sources, including solar and fossil fuels. They said that is needed to ensure grid reliability.

In a rematch from a close U.S. House race in 2022, Republican Juan Ciscomani is hoping to once again defeat Democrat Kirsten Engel.

Early results show Engel holding a narrow lead over the first-term congressman - but the race remains too close to call. 

The candidates are battling to represent Congressional District 6, which is concentrated around Tucson and includes parts of five counties.

Ciscomani beat Engel for the same seat he holds now in 2022, making him the first ever naturalized Mexican-American to represent Arizona in Congress. Before running, Ciscomani was a senior advisor and vice chair of the Arizona-Mexico commission under former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.

Engel and Ciscomani both made border security a cornerstone of their campaigns, and argued the other isn’t doing enough on that topic. Engel was an environmental lawyer before serving in the state House and Senate.

Diannie Chavez/Cronkite News, Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0

Republican Eli Crane is leading in his race for a second term in the U.S. House. Early results show him ahead of Democrat Jonathan Nez in Arizona’s Congressional District 2.

Crane handily won the massive rural district’s seat in 2022 but has been a vocal election-denier. Locally, most of the freshman congressman’s sponsored 27 pieces of legislation center on veterans protections, tribal rights, and reducing funding for government agencies like USAID.

Nez is the previous Navajo Nation president. He secured the Democratic nomination uncontested and became the first Native American to secure a major party nomination for a congressional seat in Arizona. Nez lost his bid for the Navajo presidential reelection in 2022.

Republican David Schweikert and Democratic challenger Amish Shah are locked in an extremely close race in Congressional District 1.

CD1 encompasses most of North Phoenix, Scottsdale and Cave Creek. Schweikert has won reelection by smaller and smaller margins for the past several elections.

Shah survived a crowded Democratic primary and is best known for his aggressive door-knocking strategy and for working across the aisle.

Schweikert is a staunch fiscal conservative known for his focus on finance issues like urging the Legislature to address the national debt. In 2018, a House ethics committee investigated Schweikert for misusing funds. He admitted to 11 violations and paid a fine.

If Democrats flip the Republican-leaning district, they’ll move the needle towards seizing control of the House.

Murphy Woodhouse/KJZZ

Arizona voters passed a Republican-backed plan to give state and local law enforcement the power to enforce immigration laws, over the objections of Democrats and Latino advocacy groups who warn the law will lead to racial profiling.

State lawmakers referred Prop. 314 to the ballot after a similar measure was vetoed earlier this year by Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs. Critics of the proposal compared it to SB 1070, the controversial immigration law passed in 2010 that was partially overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Read the full story →

Unofficial results also strong backing for Proposition 489, which would give the Phoenix mayor and city council members their first raises in almost 20 years. The proposition is currently passing, with roughly two-thirds of city voters in support.

Since 2006, the mayor’s annual salary has been $88,000 while each council member earns $61,600. Their numbers double when you add pensions and other benefits. Voters were asked whether the mayor’s salary should be $103,840 and each council member’s be $77,000.

The increases were recommended by Phoenix’s Citizens’ Commission on Salaries of Elected Officials. In 1973, voters created the commission to review salaries and make recommendations. Commission members are appointed by the City Council.

An Arizona ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution has passed, according to a call by the Associated Press.

“Next time the nation wonders how much government interference in reproductive healthcare is acceptable, or what type of arbitrary abortion ban is popular, they can look at Arizona and know the answer is 'none',” Chris Love, spokesperson for the Prop. 139 campaign, said in a statement.

Since 2022, Arizona has enforced a law banning abortions after 15 weeks of gestation. Proposition 139 will amend the state constitution to allow abortions to the point of fetal viability — around 24 weeks. And the measure will allow exceptions for abortions beyond the point of viability to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.

Sam Ballesteros/Cronkite News

Unofficial results show Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego with a commanding lead over her opponent, Matt Evans and Phoenix voters approving pay raises for the mayor and councilmembers.

Read the full story →

Mary Grace Grabill/Cronkite News and Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0

Gallego led Lake in early returns, which comprised mail ballots received and counted before Election Day and about half of the total expected votes. Gallego expressed confidence when he spoke to Democrats on Tuesday night in Phoenix.

Read the full story →

Jean Clare Sarmiento/KJZZ

Arizona voters returned some U.S. House incumbents to office on Tuesday, but some competitive races were too early to call.

Read the full roundup →

Voters were far less sympathetic to a proposal advanced by Republican lawmakers to give most sitting judges de facto life terms without having to face the electorate again until they retire at age 70. Fewer than 1 in 4 voters agreed with the idea in early returns, and the Associated Press has called that the proposition did not pass.

And at least part of their opposition went beyond the idea itself but instead a reaction to Proposition 137 being crafted to override any vote of the public to oust a sitting jurist this year.

Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0

It doesn’t look like Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is going to get a chance to appoint two more justices to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Early returns show voters narrowly agreeing to give full six-year terms to Justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King. Both were appointed by Doug Ducey, Hobbs’ Republican predecessor.

A series of bomb threats across multiple battleground states including Arizona and baseless claims of wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump disrupted an otherwise smooth Election Day that capped a tumultuous presidential campaign.

The bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania on Tuesday turned out to be hoaxes, but they forced some polling places to evacuate and extend hours, and delayed the counting of some ballots.

Bomb threats were reported at several voting locations in two Arizona counties, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Arizona, a hotly contested swing state, saw multiple Election Day challenges. Bomb threats targeted polling locations in Cochise and Navajo counties, delaying some results, and frustrated Native American voters stood in hours-long lines in Apache County. A judge ordered some polling places there to remain open two extra hours because of malfunctioning equipment and a lack of printed ballots.

Throughout the day, members of the Navajo Nation reported being turned away by poll workers after waiting for hours. Over 43,000 registered voters live on the Apache County portion of the Navajo Nation, according to court documents in the lawsuit seeking the extension of voting.

Zane James said he waited out in the cold with about 50 other voters for about 2 1/2 hours before they could cast their ballots because of a problem with the site’s single printer.

“It was just a mess, it was terrible,” he said.

At a polling site in Chinle, on the Navajo Nation, Amanda Woody said she didn’t know how long it would take before she would be able to cast her ballot.

“There is a line, but I’m willing to wait,” she said. “Every vote counts.”

Katherine Davis-Young/KJZZ

Chris Love, spokesperson for Proposition 139, called first batch of results a “pending victory “ for the abortion rights measure on Tuesday night.

The campaign is confident but wants to wait for more results to officially declare victory.

Alisa Reznick/KJZZ

Supporters of Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani are gathered at a watch party at the El Conquistador Hilton resort in Oro Valley — just north of Tucson.

Ciscomani is running for Arizona's 6th Congressional District — a sweeping district that includes parts of Tucson and the border. Ciscomani said he trusts the voting process in Arizona.

"I have full confidence in the process, my supporters know that, my communities know that," said Ciscomani. "There is no room for violence, one of the greatest things of our nation is the peaceful transfer of power."

Ciscomani is running against Democrat Kirsten Engel. The two faced off in a tight race in 2022 that took several days to call.

Raúl Grijalva

Longtime southern Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva has won reelection to the U.S. House in what he said will be his last term in office.

Read the full story →

Sky Schaudt/KJZZ

The Show host Mark Brodie, Marcus Dell'Artino of First Strategic and Democratic strategist Tony Cani are analyzing the election on air. Listen on 91.5 FM, our website and on the KJZZ app.

An Apache County Superior Court judge granted a motion by the Navajo Nation to keep the county's nine polling places open until 9 p.m.

"We needed that to happen. Because it was very critical. People were being turned away. Its hard enough to get to the polls and then on top of that, telling that we’re not going to be able to do it," Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in an interview with KJZZ.

A bomb threat shuttered a polling location in Kayenta for an hour, Nygren said.

"Just unfortunate things that happen on Navajo, but I’m just glad that at least got the nine precincts that stayed open until 9 o'clock," Nygren said.

Read the full story →

Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0

Republican Abe Hamadeh is leading in the race to succeed Congresswoman Debbie Lesko in Congressional District 8, which covers parts of the West Valley.

Read the full story →

Get early results from the Associated Press for Arizona's 13 statewide ballot measures, including on abortion and border security.

See the full list of results →

Gage Skidmore/CC by 2.0

Former Phoenix Councilmember Yassamin Ansari has won election to the U.S. House in Congressional District 3, according to The Associated Press. She replaces outgoing Congressman Ruben Gallego, who is running for Senate.

Ansari defeated Republican Jeff Zink in the heavily Democratic district, which encompasses part of Phoenix.

Read the full story →

An Apache County Superior Court judge granted a motion by the Navajo Nation to keep the county's 9 polling places open until 9 p.m.

Arizona's polling places close at 7 p.m. Navajo Nation president Buu Nygren said the tribe sued for a two-hour emergency extension because an unspecified number of voters weren’t able to vote due to malfunctioning voting machines, shortages of printed ballots, long wait times and miscommunication about provisional ballots.

Read the full story →

The first results in Arizona 2024 general election were available just after 8 pm. on Tuesday night.

See more on KJZZ's 2024 Arizona election results page →

Christina Estes/KJZZ

Arizona Democrats waited in line for their watch party early Tuesday evening. The evening will feature Chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano and remarks from candidates, according to organizers.

Katherine Davis-Young/KJZZ

Backers of Proposition 139, the Arizona abortion rights measure, hold a watch party Tuesday to find outs its results.

Athena Ankrah/KJZZ

Arizona voting centers close at 7 p.m., but anyone in line by that time will still be able to vote.

Voters at University Lutheran Church in Tempe had a wait of about 20 minutes at 6:31 p.m., according to Maricopa County.

Source: The Associated Press, Credit: Connie Hanzhang Jin and Daniel Wood/NPR

Here seven counties to watch — one in each swing state — that might give some idea how the race is going and why one candidate or the other won:

1. Montgomery County, Pa.: This wealthy and highly educated Philadelphia suburb is crucial to Democrats’ chances in the state. Biden netted 40,000 more votes here than Hillary Clinton in 2016, a third of the entire statewide vote shift in his favor.

2. Dane County, Wisc.: This heavily Democratic county has seen tremendous growth in the past decade. It accounted for 1-in-6 Democratic votes statewide in 2020, but 80% of the total vote shift in Biden's favor.

3. Wayne County, Mich.: It's home to Detroit and Dearborn, and may tell the story of whether Vice President Harris was able to turn out Black voters and how much the war in Gaza was a factor. Wayne is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans anywhere in the country.

4. Henderson County, N.C.: This is one of the more populous Trump-won counties affected by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. Turnout there will give some idea of how Trump’s vote is affected.

5. Gwinnett County, Ga.: It has seen a population boom in the past decade, is the most populous suburban county in the state and is now majority non-white. It flipped in 2016 from Republican to Democrat and went by an even wider margin for Biden in 2020.

6. Maricopa County, Ariz.: Biden won Arizona by just over 10,000 votes, a 100,000-vote swing from 2016. And 90% of that came from Maricopa, home to Phoenix.

7. Clark County, Nev.: Almost 70% of all the state's votes come from this county, home to Las Vegas. It will tell us whether Trump’s appeals on the economy to working-class Latino voters worked. It's home to a significant share of Asian American and Black voters Harris also needs to help her win.

Click here to read about even more swing counties.

Office of Navajo President Buu Nygren

Navajo Nation president Buu Nygren says the tribe has sued to keep polling locations open two hours in Apache County.

Nygren said the tribe sued in Superior Court for a two-hour emergency extension. Nygren said an unspecified number of voters weren’t able to vote due to malfunctioning voting machines, shortages of printed ballots, long wait times and miscommunication about provisional ballots.

Officials are warning of an apparent scam targeting voters in northern Arizona.

Coconino County election officials said Tuesday afternoon that an unknown group has been telling people at voting locations they can vote at polling places here using a quote federal-only ballot, even if they are registered to vote in another Arizona county.

That is actually not allowed and officials warn folks should only vote in the county they’re registered to vote in.

Polling locations are open throughout Coconino County with reportedly light waiting times midday.

A line of voters stretched more than a hour long when KJZZ News stopped by a vote center on ASU's Tempe campus around 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

Arizona voting centers close at 7 p.m., but anyone in line by that time will still be able to vote.

All aboard the party bus to the polls. Turning Point Action, the conservative political group founded by Charlie Kirk, rented buses to take voters standing in long lines in Maricopa County to polls with a shorter wait.

Dubbed the “Trump Train,” the fleet included the Wild West Party Bus and a pink bus featuring poles and a neon sign that reads “What happens in Scottsdale, stays in Scottsdale.”

Read the full story on NPR.org →

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne was asked to leave a voting line at Paradise Valley Community College Tuesday.

Horne was accused of violating rules intended to protect Election Day voters from interference.

Arizona law places a 75-foot perimeter around voting locations, saying electioneering is prohibited and nobody should be within that area except for the purpose of voting.

In a video shared with the Arizona Republic, Horne is seen holding a clipboard, interacting with voters waiting in line, when a woman intervenes. Horne continues writing on his clipboard, before telling the woman he is not electioneering and leaves.

In a statement to KJZZ, Horne said he was getting signatures on his petition for reelection in 2026. He said that after someone pointed out another sign indicating he was within the 75-foot limit, he stepped away and just finished writing down an address. Horne added that he did not leave the voting site and was not asked to. 

Camryn Sanchez/KJZZ

U.S. Senate: Ruben Gallego vs. Kari Lake

The campaign for Arizona's open U.S. Senate seat will be one of the most closely watched races in the country. The winner could determine control of the chamber in 2025, and either pave the way for a party's agenda or serve as a roadblock to the next president's signature policy proposals.

Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego is facing failed gubernatorial candidate Republican Kari Lake.

Maricopa County recorder: Justin Heap vs. Tim Stringham

The Maricopa County recorder is in charge of early voting, voter registration and a handful of non-election duties. The office has become a political hot potato in recent years following the proliferation of unproven claims of widespread voter fraud spread by politicians like former President Donald Trump, leading to the ouster of incumbent Republican Recorder Stephen Richer, who lost favor with many GOP voters over his defense of the county's elections.

Republican Justin Heap and Democrat Tim Stringham will face off in the election.

Arizona CD1: David Schweikert vs. Amish Shah

Arizona's 1st Congressional District covers northeast Maricopa County including Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and Cave Creek. CD1 leans slightly Republican but is considered competitive.

The incumbent, Republican David Schweikert, narrowly kept his seat in the 2022 general election against then-challenger Jevin Hodge. Schweikert won by less than 1% of the vote. Democrat Amish Shah beat out five other Democrats in a tight primary race.

Proposition 139: Right to abortion

Proposition 139 would establish a right to abortion in Arizona’s Constitution. Under current state law, abortions are legal until 15 weeks of pregnancy. Prop. 139 would legalize abortions through fetal viability — which is around 24 weeks gestation — unless a health-care professional determines an abortion is necessary to protect “the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

State legislatures 

Control of legislatures is up for grabs in several states this year. Republicans are defending vulnerable majorities in Arizona, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, and Democrats are trying to stay on top in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

Things are humming along at the 246 voting centers in Maricopa County. That’s the word from Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates.

This morning, he said the average wait was about 2 minutes, but those lines were expected to pick up as the day goes on.

"Make a plan if you haven’t voted yet. We anticipate the heaviest time in the remainder of the day is going to be from 4 to 7 p.m.," Gates said.

Voting centers close at 7 p.m., but anyone in line by that time will still be able to vote.

A number of states — including Arizona, Montana and Nevada — are voting on far-reaching changes to how their elections are run.

You can find more about these measures here.

See the results of those measures on NPR.org →

Chad Snow/KJZZ

At Tempe’s Pyle Adult Rec Center on Tuesday morning, a line of voters stretched around the building to cast their ballots.

But the crowd seemed upbeat as DJ Robert Michael provided entertainment. He was there as part of a program called DJs at the Polls.

"And its a nonprofit program where we just try to have DJs at various polling locations. Just, you know, you’re waiting in line, just make your day a little bit better," Michael said. "Music always bring up everyone’s moods. So we’re just out here, completely bipartisan, just trying to help people get out there to vote."

And the bipartisanship extends to the set list.

"It’s honestly just a little bit of everything. 'Cause you have all kinds of voters, all different ages, all different backgrounds, so we’re here just to kind of play like a little bit of everything for everyone," Michael said.

And because he expected to be busy Tuesday, Michael made sure to cast his own ballot on Monday.

Phil Latzman/KJZZ

Video shared with The Arizona Republic shows Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne being asked to leave a voting line at Paradise Valley Community College on suspicion of electioneering.

Horne holds a clipboard and talks to people in line, but is asked to leave the 75-foot perimeter. When confronted, Horne said he was not electioneering and left.

Horne’s office has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Jean Clare Sarmiento/KJZZ

People lined up to fill out or drop off their ballots across the state Tuesday. Chandler poll worker Monica Casillas said one nearby location had a 50-minute wait.

“We're at a larger facility and we have quite a few machines so we haven't had a wait yet. And one thing I would encourage people to do is go online,” said Casillas. “Just Google ‘Maricopa County wait times,’ and you can search to see where the wait times are because you can vote at any site in Maricopa County.”

As election marshal, Monica Casillas was responsible for opening her site at 6 a.m.

“I definitely have my personal preferences,” she said, “but it's a big honor and a privilege to help everyone vote no matter what they are voting on or who they're voting for, just as an Arizonan and as an American.”

That includes things like helping out with curbside voting. Casillas said it’s the third election she’s worked over the past year and a half, but already the busiest by far.

“It's been very steady and very busy compared to our other elections that I've participated in,” said Casillas. “It's not only the people voting in person, but just the people that wanted to physically drop off their mail in ballots.”

She’ll end the 15-hour day by transporting ballots to the county’s tabulation center after polls close.

More than 2 million Arizonans have already voted.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richard said Monday that more than 1 million early ballots have been processed to be included in the county's first batch of results. Those will be posted around 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Another 425,000 to 475,000 early ballots are ready to be processed for tomorrow's results.

Elections

2024 Arizona election results

Follow Arizona and Maricopa County results here. AP will continue to update returns as data is made available.

The Show’s Sam Dingman went out to Valley polling places this morning.

SAM DINGMAN: I am in Glendale, and I've spent a bunch of time this morning at a couple of locations. First, the LDS church at Pinnacle Peak and then at the Community of ChristChurch, also here in Glendale.

LAUREN GILGER: What's it been like so far out where you are this morning?

DINGMAN: Well, you know, it's been a very interesting, stark contrast. I have to say I was at the LDS church for a while and nobody came in to vote. They were actually still, you know, going around putting up the sandwich boards that said, “vote here.”

And the only folks that I spoke to were actually a couple of church representatives who told me, I “wasn't allowed to be there” and asked me to leave.

GILGER: So what voters have you heard from at this point? What are they saying?

DINGMAN: Well, at Community of Christchurch, it was a completely different story. I wouldn't say there were long lines, but there have been a steady stream of voters coming in and out of the polling place.

Anecdotally, I should say, almost all of them were wearing some form of Trump campaign merchandise. And they have had a lot of interesting things to say.

One first time voter actually told me that he was very excited to cast his first vote in a presidential election. And I asked him what the issue that was exciting him to vote the most was. And he told me it was the price of gas. I also spoke to his brother who said that his main issue is wanting to buy a house. And this was reflective of many of the folks that I talked to, these very immediate kind of practical concerns.

I did speak to another guy who told me that the thing that fascinates him the most about this election. And I have to say this is a point I hadn't heard too many other folks make, is that voters have a choice between two presidential candidates who both have relatively recent White House experience.

Former President Trump obviously was president for four years and Vice President Harris has been vice president for almost that much time and he said he can't recall another time in his lifetime, when voters have had to make a less speculative decision.

GILGER: Any issues that have come up with voters that you talked to at this point?

DINGMAN: Yes, I would say other than those very immediate practical concerns, the two biggest things on the folks minds that I have spoken to are foreign policy. They have said repeatedly that they would like to see an end to all wars. That's something that, five or six people used that exact language.

They would like to see an end to all wars. And actually, one of the Republican Party representatives I spoke to who was doing some electioneering, I should say well into the allowable area where that is allowed, told me he was a Vietnam veteran and he said that something that is very important to him is that the military should be used as a last resort. And that he feels strongly that former President Trump has the ability to intimidate foreign leaders out of conflicts before they start.

Tim Agne/KJZZ

The results on Election Day will come down to seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have visited them the most. Together, these states are likely to deliver the Electoral College votes needed for the winning candidate to get a majority of 270.

It will be a game of hopscotch to keep up with key times in each of the states, which stretch across four different time zones.

A look at the Election Day timeline across the seven, with all listings in Eastern Standard Time:

Arizona

Polls opened at 6 a.m. in Arizona, which Joe Biden carried in 2020 by 0.3%. He was only the second Democratic presidential candidate to do so in nearly 70 years. Polls will close at 7 p.m. Arizona time.

Arizona does not release votes until all precincts have reported or one hour after all polls are closed, whichever is first.

In 2020, the Associated Press first reported Arizona results at 10:02 p.m. ET on Nov. 3, Election Day, and declared Biden the winner at 2:51 a.m. ET on Nov. 4.

Georgia

Polls opened at 7 a.m. in Georgia, which played a key role in 2020. Biden was the first Democrat in a White House race to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1992, defeating Trump by less than one-quarter of a percentage point, a margin of 11,779 votes.

Since then, Trump’s efforts to overturn those results have been at the heart of a criminal case in Fulton County. It is on hold while his legal team pursues a pretrial appeal to have District Attorney Fani Willis removed from the case and the indictment tossed. The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear those arguments after the election.

Georgia's polls close at 7 p.m.

In 2020, the AP first reported Georgia results at 7:20 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the state's winner at 7:58 p.m. ET on Nov. 19, more than two weeks after Election Day.

Michigan

Polls opened at 7 a.m. ET in Michigan, one of the “blue wall” states that went narrowly for Trump in 2016 after almost 30 years of voting for Democratic candidates. Biden won it back four years later. His margin was about 154,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million votes.

Michigan covers two time zones, but polls in most of the state close at 8 p.m. ET, with the rest at 9 p.m. ET.

In 2020, the AP first reported Michigan results at 8:08 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the winner at 5:58 p.m. ET on Nov. 4.

Nevada

Polls opened at 10 a.m. ET in Nevada, the smallest electoral vote prize of the battlegrounds. But it has one of the best track records as a presidential bellwether. The candidate who won Nevada has gone on to win the White House in 27 of the past 30 presidential elections.

Polls close at 10 p.m. ET. The state doesn’t release results until the last person in line has voted, so there’s usually been a wait between poll close and the first results.

In 2020, the AP first reported Nevada results at 11:41 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the winner at 12:13 p.m. ET on Nov. 7.

North Carolina

Polls opened at 6:30 a.m. ET in North Carolina, which has been carried by Democrats only two times in presidential elections since 1968. But the state has stayed competitive for both major parties. Trump’s 2020 victory in North Carolina, by about 1 percentage point, was his smallest winning margin in any state.

Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.

In 2020, the AP first reported results at 7:42 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Trump the winner at 3:49 p.m. ET on Nov. 13.

Pennsylvania

Polls opened at 7 a.m. ET in Pennsylvania, another “blue wall" state. Biden’s 2020 margin in Pennsylvania was about 80,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million votes. This year, it's the spot where Harris and Trump met for the first time at their sole debate in September in Philadelphia.

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET in a state with more electoral votes, 19, than any of the battlegrounds.

In 2020, the AP first reported results at 8:09 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the winner at 11:25 a.m. ET on Nov. 7.

Wisconsin

Polls opened at 8 a.m. ET in Wisconsin, the third “blue wall” state in this group. Wisconsin is no stranger to close elections; the margin of victory in the state was less than 1 percentage point in 2020, 2016, 2004 and 2000.

Polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

In 2020, the AP first reported Wisconsin results at 9:07 p.m. ET on Nov. 3 and declared Biden the winner at 2:16 p.m. ET on Nov. 4.

Tim Agne/KJZZ

Maricopa County election officials are warning voters to expect lines at the polls.

“But as Americans, we're used to waiting in line. We wait in line for coffee, we wait in line for our groceries. Sometimes we wait in line for new sneakers or video games, if that's your thing,” said Maricopa County Assistant Manager Zach Schira. “We can wait in line to exercise our right to vote.”

This election has already been rife with concerns about security from the safety of voters and poll workers to ensuring all votes are counted. Election officials here say they're prepared.

“We will not be playing whack-a-mole. But what we will be taking very seriously is any misinformation that impacts a voter's ability to vote a ballot. That misinformation we will be very aggressive in reporting,” Schira said.”

Election Day voting unfolded largely smoothly across the nation Tuesday with only scattered reports of delays from extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems.

Most of the hiccups occurring by midday were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing. She said the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.

In swing-state Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll watchers were not allowed into some polling sites were soon resolved. A Pennsylvania state judge ordered polls to remain open for two extra hours in Cambria County, which voted 68% for former President Donald Trump in 2020. The county sought the extension after a software malfunction affected ballot-scanning machines, though county officials confirmed no one was turned away from the polls and said all ballots would be counted.

A technical malfunction in Champaign County, Illinois, and challenges with e-pollbooks in Louisville, Kentucky, also delayed voting, but those issues were soon fixed and voting was back up and running. In Arizona's Maricopa County, one voting location was slightly delayed when a worker forgot to bring a key.

Tim Agne/KJZZ

The turbulent 2024 campaign has reached its end.

Tens of millions of voters have already cast general election ballots, and millions more will do the same on Tuesday’s Election Day, before polls close and the reporting of results begins.

Here are some things to keep in mind throughout Election Day and beyond.

Read the guide at NPR.org →

Disability Rights Arizona opened its voting hotline for individuals who experience disability-related problems at their polling site.

Attorneys and staff advocates will be available to answer questions about the voting process, including:

• lack of accessibility.
• lack of/broken accessible voting machines.
• any disability-related problems casting a private, independent vote.

Natalie Luna Rose with the non-partisan agency says their focus is on connecting voters with disabilities to resources that address inaccessible voting machines or other barriers to casting a ballot.

"By making sure that all Americans of all accessibility levels are afforded the same rights, the work that our agency does is laying the foundation for laws that will make things equitable," she said.

She says if a caller encounters an inaccessible polling station or pushback to voting, the hotline can connect them to relevant resources like local election officials or legal advocates.

The DRAZ hotline is 602-274-6287 or 800-927-2260.

Voters can also file complaints with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office or the Arizona Attorney General's Office.

Shealah Craighead/White House

The $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that Elon Musk's political action committee is hosting in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday.

Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta — ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are paid spokespeople and not chosen by chance — did not immediately explain his reasoning.

District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, had called the process a scam “designed to actually influence a national election” and asked that it be shut down.

Musk lawyer Chris Gober said the final two recipients before Tuesday's presidential election will be in Arizona on Monday and Michigan on Tuesday.

“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance," Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.

Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said Krasner's bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.

Other winners came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. It's not clear if anyone has yet received the money. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.

Tim Agne/KJZZ

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and congressional hopeful Yassamin Ansari were among the crowd outside the polling center at Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix this morning.

Tim Agne/KJZZ

The only polling location in Golden Valley was temporarily affected by a UniSource Energy Services power outage early Tuesday morning.

Mohave County officials said the Golden Valley Fire District Training Center site, about 10 miles west of Kingman, lost power around 4:45 a.m.

About 40 voters were lined up outside and were admitted into the location at 6 a.m. Power was restored to electronic polling books, and voting started at 6:20 a.m.

County Elections Director Allen Tempert said in a press release the Golden Valley Fire Department provided generators.

Officials said 88 people had cast their votes by 7 a.m. The polling location is open until 7 p.m.

Alisa Reznick/KJZZ

How are the voting lines where you are in Arizona?

Lines stretched out from the polling place door and down a flight of stairs at the University of Arizona in Tucson on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.

If you’re heading to the polls this election, Elvia Díaz is here to tell you your vote is safe — and you should be, too.

Why? Because our election officials in Arizona have been planning to keep you and your vote safe for more than a year.

Díaz is the editorial page editor of the Arizona Republic, and she joined The Show to talk about it.

Hear the interview on The Show →

Bridget Dowd/KJZZ

Tucked at the bottom of the ballot, races for the state legislature can have an enormous effect on issues from abortion to guns to voting access.

Control of legislatures is up for grabs in several states this year. Republicans are defending vulnerable majorities in Arizona, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, and Democrats are trying to stay on top in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

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Just a handful of states are poised to decide the outcome of the election:

• Arizona (11 electoral votes): The state is home to an increasingly diverse and rapidly growing population. It has voted Republican in all but two presidential elections since 1948 — Bill Clinton in 1996 and Biden in 2020.

• Georgia (16 electoral votes): This typically red state went for Biden in 2020.
  
• Nevada (6 electoral votes): The state has a small but diverse population with a potential for big political impact.
  
• Wisconsin (10 electoral votes): The state is known for its nail-biters. Trump won in 2016; Biden won it back narrowly in 2020.
  
• Michigan (15 electoral votes): What was once a reliable "blue wall" has swung to the right in recent years, with Trump managing to flip it — very narrowly — in 2016 and Biden winning it back in 2020.
  
• Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes): It has the most electoral votes of any swing state, making it especially key to a candidate's success.
  
• North Carolina (16 electoral votes): Since 2008, the state has been decided, on average, by less than 2 points.

Teams of NPR journalists have spent time talking to voters in each of these states throughout the year. Here's what they've found.

Amy Silverman/KJZZ

The majority of Maricopa County residents vote by mail, but county officials say Election Day voters should still prepare to face long lines on Tuesday.

Election officials said that 1.5 million voters had cast early ballots as of Monday morning.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said his office has verified signatures on about 1.4 million ballots so far and fully processed about 1.2 million ballots, meaning they are ready to be counted.

Find locations throughout metro Phoenix to vote in person or drop off your mail-in ballot using the map below.

For more information on hours of operation for vote centers and drop boxes near you, visit https://elections.maricopa.gov/voting/where-to-vote.html.

Vote centers in Maricopa County

Click the arrow in the upper left of the map to see vote centers sorted by open date.

Arizona voters are set to decide whether to let local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico, an authority that would encroach on the federal government's power over immigration enforcement but would not take effect immediately, if ever.

If Arizona voters approve Proposition 314, the state would become the latest to test the limits of what local authorities can do to curb illegal immigration. Within the past year, GOP lawmakers in Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma have passed immigration laws. In each case, federal courts have halted the states' efforts to enforce them.

The only presidential battleground state that borders Mexico, Arizona is no stranger to a bitter divide on the politics of immigration. Since the early 2000s, frustration over federal enforcement of Arizona’s border with Mexico has inspired a movement to draw local police departments, which had traditionally left border duties to the federal government, into immigration enforcement.

The state Legislature approved an immigrant smuggling ban in 2005 that let then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio conduct immigration crackdowns, a 2007 prohibition on employers knowingly hiring people in the country illegally, and a landmark 2010 immigration law that required police, while enforcing other laws, to question the legal status of people suspected of being in the country without authorization.

Arizona voters have been asked to decide matters related to immigration before. They approved a 2004 law denying some government benefits to people in the country illegally and a 2006 law declaring English to be Arizona’s official language. They also rejected a 2008 proposal that would have made business-friendly revisions to the state law barring employers from hiring people who are in the country without authorization.

Arizona GOP lawmakers say the proposal is necessary to help secure the border, as they blame the Biden administration for an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration. Record levels of illegal crossings have plummeted in recent months, following moves by the White House to tighten asylum restrictions.

Opponents of Proposition 314 argue it would harm Arizona’s economy and reputation, as well as lead to the racial profiling of Latinos. They cite the profiling Latinos endured when Arpaio led the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. In 2013, a federal judge ruled Latinos had been racially profiled in Arpaio’s traffic patrols that targeted immigrants, leading to a court-ordered overhaul of the agency that’s expected to cost taxpayers $314 million in legal and compliance costs by mid-summer 2025.

Kelli Hykes, who works in health policy and volunteers for Greg Whitten, the Democratic nominee in the race for Arizona's 8th Congressional District, said she thought carefully about how to vote on the immigration measure but declined to share her choice.

“It’s so polarizing, and there are folks in my family that are going to be voting one way and I’m voting another,” Hykes said.

Proposition 314 would make it a state crime for people to illegally enter Arizona from Mexico outside official ports of entry, permitting local and state law enforcement officers to arrest them and state judges to order their deportations. Those who enforce the law would be shielded from civil lawsuits.

These provisions, however, wouldn’t be enforceable immediately. A violator couldn’t be prosecuted until a similar law in Texas or another state has been in effect for 60 consecutive days.

The Arizona GOP lawmakers who voted to put the measure on the ballot were referring to Texas Senate Bill 4. The bill, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December, was supposed to allow local and state law enforcement to arrest people accused of entering Texas illegally from Mexico.

A federal appeals court put it on hold in March. The following month, a panel of federal judges heard from a Texas attorney defending the law and Justice Department attorneys arguing it encroached on the federal government's authority over enforcing immigration law. The panel has yet to release its decision.

Other provisions of Proposition 314 aren’t contingent upon similar laws outside Arizona. If voters approve the measure, it would immediately make selling fentanyl that results in a person’s death a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and a crime for noncitizens to submit false documentation when applying for employment or attempting to receive benefits from local, state and federal programs.

Arizona voters are set to decide whether to guarantee the right to abortion in the state constitution — a vote that could cement access after the presidential battleground came close to a near-total ban earlier this year.

Arizona is one of nine states with abortion on the ballot.

Abortion-rights advocates are hoping for a win that could expand access beyond the state's current 15-week limit to the point of fetal viability, a term used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus might survive outside the uterus. Doctors say it's sometime after 21 weeks, though there's no defined time frame.

Advocates also are counting on the measure to drive interest among Democrats to vote the party line up and down the ballot. When Republicans running in tough races address the ballot measure, they generally don’t dissuade voters from supporting it, though some like Senate candidate Kari Lake say they’re personally voting against it. GOP U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, whose battleground congressional district encompasses Tucson, ran an ad saying he rejects "the extremes on abortion.”

Arizona has been whipsawed by recent legal and legislative battles centered on abortion. In April, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for enforcement of a long-dormant 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions. The Legislature swiftly repealed it.

In addition to the abortion ballot measure itself, the issue could sway state legislative races and lead to elimination of the voice voters have over retention of state Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices.

Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition leading the ballot measure campaign, has far outpaced the opposition campaign, It Goes Too Far, in fundraising. Opponents argue that the measure is too far-reaching because its physical and mental health exemption post-viability is so broad that it effectively legalizes abortion beyond viability. The measure allows post-viability abortions if they are necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the mother.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion-rights supporters prevailed in all seven abortion ballot questions, including in conservative-leaning states.

Voters in Arizona are divided on abortion. Maddy Pennell, a junior at Arizona State University, said the possibility of a near-total abortion ban made her “depressed” and strengthened her desire to vote for the abortion ballot measure.

“I feel very strongly about having access to abortion,” she said.

Kyle Lee, an independent Arizona voter, does not support the abortion ballot measure.

“All abortion is pretty much, in my opinion, murder from beginning to end,” Lee said.

The Civil War-era ban also shaped the contours of tight legislative races. State Sen. Shawnna Bolick and state Rep. Matt Gress are among the handful of vulnerable Republican incumbents in competitive districts who crossed party lines to give the repeal vote the final push — a vote that will be tested as both parties vie for control of the narrowly GOP-held state Legislature.

Both of the Phoenix-area lawmakers were rebuked by some of their Republican colleagues for siding with Democrats. Gress made a motion on the House floor to initiate the repeal of the 1864 law. Bolick, explaining her repeal vote to her Senate colleagues, gave a 20-minute floor speech describing her three difficult pregnancies.

While Gress was first elected to his seat in 2022, Bolick is facing voters for the first time. She was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to fill a seat vacancy in 2023. She has not emphasized her role in the repeal vote as she has campaigned, instead playing up traditional conservative issues — one of her signs reads “Bolick Backs the Blue.”

Another question before voters is whether to move away from retention elections for state Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices, a measure put on the ballot by Republican legislators hoping to protect two justices who favored allowing the Civil War-era ban to be enforced.

Under the existing system, voters decide every four to six years whether judges and justices should remain on the bench. The proposed measure would allow the judges and justices to stay on the bench without a popular vote unless one is triggered by felony convictions, crimes involving fraud and dishonesty, personal bankruptcy or mortgage foreclosure.

Shawnna Bolick’s husband, Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, is one of two conservative justices up for a retention vote. Justice Bolick and Justice Kathryn Hackett King, who were both appointed by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, sided with the high court’s majority to allow the enforcement of the 1864 near-total ban. Abortion-rights activists have campaigned for their ouster, but if the ballot measure passes they will keep their posts even if they don’t win the retention election.