Arizona’s most populous county may not know its vote totals today

Arizona’s most populous county may not know its vote totals today, which could leave in doubt the presidential race in the traditionally Republican-voting state.

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, expects to have more than 350,000 uncounted early ballots by the time the polls close. Roughly 1.1 million voters in the metropolitan county had returned early votes as of Tuesday, up 140,000 from 2012.

Election workers had counted roughly 800,000, leaving more than 200,000 to count. Roughly 150,000 are expected to have been dropped off at polling sites around the county.

Elizabeth Bartholomew, communication manager for Maricopa County Recorder’s office, says, “If there’s a large enough gap in votes, you might not be able to call some races.”

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were running neck-and-neck in Arizona, carried by Republicans in all but one election since 1952.