Arizona GOP Accuses Dem Recorder of Destroying Evidence

Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Lines accused Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes of destroying evidence, in the midst of the ongoing vote count in the razor-thin contest for a U.S. Senate seat between Congresswomen Martha McSally (R.) and Krysten Sinema (D.).

Late Thursday night, new updates from many of the recorders across the state shot Sinema past McSally to take a roughly 9,600 vote lead, whereas just the night before, it was McSally who led the contest by about 17,000 votes.

After the Thursday night update, roughly 400,000 votes were still to be counted, the bulk of which were in Maricopa, which is leaning toward Sinema this cycle. It was the Maricopa update which provided the new lead for Sinema.

The accusations by Lines dovetail with a lawsuit filed Thursday by four county divisions of the Republican Party against all of the recorders in the state as well as the secretary of state.

The Arizona GOP had already voiced concerns to recorders about early voting the Sunday before election day.

According to the Arizona Republic, the Sunday GOP letter to all of the recorders argued "that state law does not allow recorders to offer early voting after the Friday prior to Election Day except in specifically-defined emergency situations."

"The Maricopa County Recorder's Office offered 'emergency voting' from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Monday for voters who could not make it to the polls on Election Day," the Republic reported. "The Recorder's Office said it allowed voters to determine what constitutes an emergency."

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