Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden remained in the lead in Arizona with the latest ballot count on Thursday night and was projected by more news organizations to have won the state.
Biden’s lead over President Donald Trump continued to shrink—from 11,635 to 11,434—but with few remaining ballots left to tally, organizations that call races joined Fox News and the Associated Press in projecting a Biden win.
According to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, just 10,315 ballots are left to count, including about 1,000 in Maricopa County.
Fox and the AP called the race last week, to the frustration of the Trump campaign. Officials with the campaign repeatedly asked for the calls to be rescinded as Biden’s lead steadily dwindled towards recount territory.
The difference between the candidates in percentage terms is 0.34 percent. An automatic recount is triggered in Arizona if the margin is within 0.1 percent or 200 votes, whichever is the smaller number. Recounts cannot be requested, according to state law.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, said on Fox earlier this week that it “does appear that Joe Biden will win Arizona.
Trump won Arizona in 2016 by 3.5 percent.
Arizona delivers the winner 11 electoral votes.
Arizona and five other battleground states are being contested by Trump’s campaign. Biden is ahead in all six.
A recount will take place in Georgia while recounts are possible in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
The Republican Party of Arizona filed a lawsuit to request a hand count of voters by precinct, not voting center, asserting that voters have traditionally been assigned a polling place in their precinct to vote but Maricopa County instead set up “vote centers” where voters from any precinct could vote.
The county didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Arizona law provides for post-election hand-count audits. Maricopa County already completed such an audit.
