Ron Barber Now Leads Martha McSally; Kyrsten Sinema Widens Gap Against Vernon Parker

Update: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema will be headed to Congress, according to the Associated Press.The vote count is the same as when we checked with the Maricopa County Recorder's office earlier this morning -- Sinema's up nearly 5,800 votes -- but that appears to be a solid-enough lead. Read the full...

By Matthew Hendley

November 12, 2012

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Update: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema will be headed to Congress, according to the Associated Press.

The vote count is the same as when we checked with the Maricopa County Recorder's office earlier this morning -- Sinema's up nearly 5,800 votes -- but that appears to be a solid-enough lead. Read the full update on CD-9.

As more votes from CD-9 are counted, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema's lead over Republican Vernon Parker continues to increase, as Sinema is now up by nearly 5,800 votes.

There's still a healthy amount of votes left to be counted, but down in CD-2 -- where there are far fewer votes left to be counted -- Democratic Congressman Ron Barber has taken back the lead from Republican challenger Martha McSally.

See also:
-Kyrsten Sinema's Lead Growing Over Vernon Parker as More Ballots Are Counted
-Rich Carmona 4.06 Points Down, Kyrsten Sinema Gains, and 524,633 Votes Left
-Arizona's Congressional Elections: Good, Bad, and Ugly
-Kyrsten Sinema, Vernon Parker and Why Top-Two Was and Is a Dumb Idea
-Can Kyrsten Sinema Win in Congressional District 9?

In the freshest count from the Maricopa County Recorder, released yesterday, Sinema now has 100,486 votes, to Parker's 94,697, meaning Sinema's taken in nearly 2,000 more votes than Parker just since Friday, when she led by fewer than 4,000 votes.

Yesterday, Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell reported 140,000 early ballots and 122,000 provisional ballots still waiting to be processed and tabulated.

Parker could still pull off a victory, although keep in mind that only a fraction of those remaining votes came from voters within CD-9.

Down in Tucson, the Pima County Elections Department says it has about 30,000 votes left to count, as of yesterday. Most of CD-2 is in Pima County.

That doesn't make Barber's lead of just 330 votes safe by any means. McSally had a lead on Barber until this weekend, and was up by more than 1,200 votes on Wednesday.

Interestingly, if Barber and Sinema were to hold on to their leads, Arizona would be sending more Democrats than Republicans to the House of Representatives. If just one of them loses, then Republicans would have the advantage.

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