The political world’s attention is on the western US Saturday as officials work through another day to tally the votes in key races.
The razor-thin elections for Nevada’s Senate seat and Arizona’s governorship have yet to be called. Large counties in both states are working to whittle down the tens of thousands of ballots that still need to be counted.
Races we’re watching
In Nevada: Republican Adam Laxalt is holding onto a slim lead of about 860 votes over Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
If Cortez Masto wins, Democrats are projected to take control of the Senate. If she loses, the fate of the upper house will be decided in December’s Georgia runoff.
In Arizona: Democrat Katie Hobbs leads Republican Kari Lake by about 31,000 votes in the governor’s race.
It’s been a fiery campaign marked by Lake’s unfounded claims about the 2020 election and Hobbs’ role as the Arizona secretary of state.
Where we expect results this evening
In both states taking center stage tonight, large counties will release a significant number of results.
Clark County, Nevada: Clark County, which is Nevada’s most populous and encompasses Las Vegas, will release results from its remaining 22,000 mail ballots tonight, according to county registrar Joe Gloria.
This batch of results will be released “sometime this afternoon or early evening,” he said, and he estimated that this could happen around 7 p.m. ET at the earliest.
Washoe County, Nevada: Washoe County plans to release its next batch of results on Saturday night around 11 p.m. ET, according to election officials.
There are approximately 12,000 ballots remaining to be counted there, officials said, though it’s unknown how many will be in Saturday night’s batch of results.
Washoe County, which encompasses Reno, is Nevada’s second-largest by population and is considered a swing county.
Maricopa County, Arizona: More results are expected around 10 p.m. ET Saturday from Maricopa County, which is the most populous in Arizona.
Elections supervisor Bill Gates told CNN he expects a vote drop similar to last night, when the county reported about 80,000 more votes.
Gates said Friday that there are about 275,000 ballots left to count in the county, which includes Phoenix.