After Maricopa county, Arizona released a latest batch of election results, Joe Biden’s lead in the state narrowed. The two presidential candidates are now just 79,000 votes apart. More results are expected in three hours.
Maricopa – the state’s most populous county – accounts for the lion’s share of votes in Arizona.
The ballots that county officials are currently processing include absentee votes that arrived over the weekend. Maricopa has long been a conservative stronghold, but a number of factors – including demographic shifts, a cultural transformation in the suburbs, and a decade of progressive Latino-led activism – has turned the state into one of the most hotly contested political battlegrounds.
The Associated Press – whose results the Guardian uses – and several other news organizations declared the contest a win for Biden, but NBC and other organizations have maintained that the race is too close to call.
