As vote counting continues in Arizona after Tuesday's midterm election, Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) worried the Democrats legal strategy "sounds an awful lot like an effort to disenfranchise voters" from rural counties.
"Every single lawful vote in Arizona should be counted," Kyl said in a statement on Friday. "And voting laws in our state should be applied uniformly across the map. Unfortunately, the Democrats legal strategy sounds an awful lot like an effort to disenfranchise voters from eleven counties from rural parts of our state and that's troubling."
Republicans in Arizona have filed a lawsuit that targets a rule in two counties, Maricopa and Pima, that allow voters to "fix issues with their ballots" up to five days after an election, CNBC reported. The lawsuit aims to either end this practice or have it implemented throughout the entire state.
Republicans have challenged the process of counting mail-in ballots — which account for about three-fourths of Arizona's votes — in the state's two largest counties. The lawsuit, which a judge will hear Friday, targets the practice of Maricopa and Pima Counties allowing voters to fix issues with their ballots for up to five days after Election Day. The state has a tedious process of matching signatures on voters' registration forms to those on their ballots, and the counties let voters fix signature problems for days after the election.
The Arizona senate race between Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) and Republican Rep. Martha McSally remains uncalled several days after polls closed. Less than 10,000 votes separate the candidates as of Friday afternoon. McSally appeared to be in the lead on election night, but as the votes continue to come in, Sinema has moved in the lead.
Kyl has served as a senator in Arizona since he was appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey (R.) in September, shortly after the death of John McCain. He previously served Arizona as a senator–from 1995 to 2013–and congressman–from 1987 to 1995.
The Florida Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott (R.) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) also continues, headed towards an automatic vote count that has been hotly contested. Scott has accused the Broward County elections supervisor of misconduct and fraud, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) has also demanded answers from election officials in Democrat-heavy counties.
"We've all seen the incompetence and irregularities in vote tabulation in Broward and Palm Beach counties for years, but here we go again," Scott said during a press conference on Thursday. "I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of Florida."