On Sunday, Katie Hobbs, Democrat, held a narrow lead over Kari Lake (Republican challenger) because the number of ballots remaining to count shrinks. This makes it more difficult for Lake to win.

On Sunday night, Hobbs was just 26,000 votes ahead of Lake with a narrow 1 percentage point difference. It was too close to call so the suspense will continue.

With more votes coming in from across the state, Sunday’s day saw Lake reduce Hobbs’ lead of 36,000 votes.

Maricopa County officials reported that Lake won ground with Maricopa County voters. Officials also reported an update of 97,000 votes. Lake won more than 54% of the votes, reducing Hobbs’ lead by about 57,000 votes to 48,000.

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On Saturday, Maricopa County released a status update on the ballot count. It included ballots that were dropped off on election day. Lake won 52%, while Hobbs won 48%.

As the number of ballots to be counted decreases, Lake’s chances of surpassing Hobbs’ state advantage become more difficult.

Nicole DeMont, Hobbs campaign manager, stated in a Sunday statement that Hobbs has been ahead of Lake since Election Day and that “it’s evident that this won’t change.”

The statement stated that Katie Hobbs was the undisputed favorite to be the next governor of Arizona, based on the latest tabulation results from Maricopa and Pinal counties.

Lake had to win 56% of the statewide ballots that were still outstanding before Sunday’s big Maricopa County update. She needed to win more that 58% after the update.

Pima County in Arizona, second-largest and home to Tucson, saw an additional 12,000 votes. Hobbs won 60% of the vote to Lake’s 40%. This helped Hobbs to slightly increase her lead. It brought the gap between candidates down to 1.6 percentage points. However, Maricopa County’s most recent results have tempered that.

Officials in Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix) have less than 100,000 ballots to count. According to Arizona Secretary of State’s Office statistics, the statewide total stands at around 160,000

Candidates request patience

Hobbs, 52 years old, is Arizona’s secretary-of-state and a former state legislator. After receiving threats, Hobbs ran a campaign to become Arizona’s governor. She also pledged to defend democracy after the 2020 election.

Lake, 53, is an ex-news anchor on television. She was a TV news anchor for many years and has appeared in several Saturday Night Live sketches. Lake was part of an anchor team on Phoenix’s Fox 10 station for 22 years. Her campaign has been centered on border security, election reform, and a “tough love” homelessness policy.

Both candidates appealed to their supporters not to give up on counting votes, but Lake has raised doubts about the timeliness of the election process.

Hobbs posted a video on Saturday night that said, “Spirits of Team Hobbs are high” and that they would continue to follow the course. Hobbs also advised patience and allowed local election officials to do their jobs without fear.

Lake stated that she was certain she would win the race during a Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures.

Bartiromo was told by she that “we need to get involved and restore faith in elections, we cannot be the laughingstock in elections anymore in Arizona,”