Maricopans have their say in federal races

Pinal County still has 27,000 early ballots to count, with at least one update expected Saturday and a goal of finishing Monday. Provisional ballots, which number 1,800, are to be completed Tuesday.

Leading by nearly 100,000 votes, Democrat Mark Kelly is expected to be the next U.S. senator from Arizona while incumbent Democrat Tom O’Halleran is in position to keep his District 1 seat in Congress.

Pinal County overall voted for the Republicans in both races, but Maricopans not so much.

Following the trend set by the presidential race, a majority of Maricopa voters backed the Democrats for federal office.

In the Senate race, despite trailing incumbent Martha McSally in Pinal County by nearly 18,000 votes, Kelly outperformed her statewide. The current count from the Secretary of State’s office gives Kelly 1,645,063 votes to McSally’s 1,552,686.

That is a wider margin than former Vice President Joe Biden currently has against President Trump, which currently stands at fewer than 30,000 votes.

In Maricopa, Kelly leads in seven of 10 voting precincts and has a 661-vote advantage.

O’Halleran had a more difficult time shaking off challenger Tiffany Shedd. He lost Pinal County by more than 3,000 votes but leads statewide by nearly 12,000.

Maricopans weren’t quite as enthusiastic for O’Halleran as they were for Kelly, though he leads in six of the 10 precincts by an overall total of 255 votes.