MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell praises Maricopa County's election counting
MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell praised Maricopa County's election counting process despite several criticisms for Arizona taking days to produce midterm election results.
MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell defended Arizona's Maricopa County’s lengthy election counting process as the county continues to count votes almost a week later since the election.
Arizona, particularly Maricopa County, has been the focus of criticism after several tabulation issues regarding voter ballots as well as taking several days to release results.
By Monday, the race for the Arizona gubernatorial candidate had yet to be called, but Mitchell declared that Maricopa County still had "some of the best vote counting processes."
"Let’s talk about what we’ve learned from, for instance, what’s happened out in Maricopa County, what’s left out there in terms of how the vote keeps, you know, coming in, despite all of what has been said by Donald Trump and other election deniers and now beginning to be [Kari Lake] who’s falling behind Hobbs for the governor’s race. Maricopa County has some of the best vote counting processes because of past problems," Mitchell said.
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell claims Maricopa County "has some of the best vote counting processes because of past problems." (MSNBC)
"They have a whole lot of practice. And we’ve had a whole lot of practice watching the Arizona returns. We saw this in 2018, we saw it in 2020, and we’re seeing it again in 2022," NBC senior political editor Mark Murray responded. "What ends up going on is there’s this ping-pong of like where the votes are in particular counties and eastbound even in counties like Maricopa, the Phoenix area. You end up having Republican pockets and Democratic pockets and then different kind of vote methods, some are stronger for Republicans than Democrats."
A voter casts their ballot at a secure ballot drop box at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Nov. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
While some political pundits defended lengthy counting process by states like Arizona and Nevada, some critics, mostly conservatives, have chastised these states for taking days to count their voters. Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has also criticized Maricopa County’s election process as another example of a messed up electoral procedure.
Though a winner has yet to be declared, Murray commented that Maricopa County’s recent ballot numbers drop show Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs in the lead.
Maricopa County has faced criticism for taking several days to tabulate votes for the midterm elections. (AP Photo/Matt York)
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"Last night was supposed to be a really good batch of votes for Kari Lake, the Republican running, and she ended up winning them but not by the margins that you need to be able to have. With Katie Hobbs now having a 26,000-vote margin, for Kari Lake to be able to win the remaining returns have to be not only good but certainly great, and the Hobbs campaign after the latest batch of ballots that came from Maricopa County ended up declaring her as the unequivocal front-runner or favorite to be able to win. Now again, it’s important to know that NBC has only referred to this race as too close to call, but certainly does seem to be that Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee is in the driver’s seat," Murray said.
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