Trump floats 'new election' after Arizona Senate vote swings to the Democrat

Arizona polling place.
(Image credit: Ralph Freso/Getty Images)

After accusing Democrats in Georgia and Florida of voter fraud, President Trump is now alleging corruption in the Arizona Senate race — right after the Democrat started winning.

"In Arizona, SIGNATURES DON'T MATCH," Trump tweeted on Friday, pointing to "electoral corruption" in the Senate race between Republican Rep. Martha McSally and Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. Trump even went so far as to suggest a "new election" be held to "protect our democracy." The race still has not been called as votes continue to be counted, but Sinema recently took the lead after McSally had been ahead since Election Day.

Part of the reason there's still no result out of the state, The Associated Press explains, is that mail-in ballots are so popular in Arizona. All 1.7 million ballots must be delivered in a sealed envelope and signed by the voter, and election officials have to make sure the signature matches the one on file.

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Sometimes, though, there's a discrepancy between the signature on the envelope and the one on file. NBC News reports that this could happen for a variety of reasons, including if a voter's signature has changed over the years. In this case, election officials can contact them to resolve the issue. In most counties, the officials don't contact voters about signature discrepancies after the polls close, but some counties do, reports The Arizona Republic. The Arizona GOP is suing two of those counties, trying to either prevent them from continuing to contact voters about signature issues or to have that policy applied to the whole state.

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Trump seems to have interpreted this all as evidence of voter fraud, though The Associated Press reports there's "no evidence of anything unusual going on."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan is a staff writer at The Week. A graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in journalism, he also writes about horror films for Bloody Disgusting and has previously contributed to The Cheat Sheet, Heavy, WhatCulture, and more. He lives in New York City surrounded by Star Wars posters.