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Arizona Certifies Election Results, Affirming Biden's Victory In The State

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Gov. Doug Ducey exchange election documents as they certify election results Monday at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Gov. Doug Ducey exchange election documents as they certify election results Monday at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix.

Officials in Arizona certified the state's election results on Monday, affirming President-elect Joe Biden's razor-thin victory in the state over President Trump.

It comes as the president's legal team continues to tout unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud there.

Biden won Arizona by slightly more than 10,00 votes, earning him the 11 electoral votes in a state that a Democratic presidential nominee hadn't carried since Bill Clinton in 1996.

Officials also certified down-ballot races, including one clearing the way for Sen.-elect Mark Kelly, a Democrat, to be seated as early as this week.

Kelly defeated incumbent Sen. Martha McSally. Their matchup was a special election to fill the remaining term for the late Sen. John McCain, who was reelected in 2016 and died in 2018.

Kelly is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday, according to The Arizona Republic.

Mark Kelly prepares to speak at an election night event in Tucson, Ariz. Kelly reportedly is set to be sworn in as a new senator this week.
Ross D. Franklin / AP
Mark Kelly prepares to speak at an election night event in Tucson, Ariz. Kelly reportedly is set to be sworn in as a new senator this week.

"This was a historic election for several reasons," said Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, at a brief event on Monday morning.

She noted that roughly 80% of eligible voters cast votes totaling more than 3.4 million ballots.

"Preparing for any election is an immense undertaking even in normal circumstances. The complexity this year has been compounded by the pandemic," Hobbs said. "In spite of this, we had an extremely well-run election and saw historically high voter participation."

Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, appearing alongside Hobbs, praised state election officials, poll workers and election volunteers "for their dedication to the success of our election system."

He added: "As I've said before, we do elections well here in Arizona. The system is strong and that's why I have bragged on it so much."

Meanwhile, the Arizona Republican Party tweeted Monday: "DO NOT CERTIFY A FALSE ELECTION!"

Members of Trump's legal team, including Rudy Giuliani, took part in an unofficial meeting with some Arizona GOP lawmakers in which he urged state officials to disregard election results.

In the days following Election Day, Trump's legal team raised concerns that some voters had their ballots rejected incorrectly on the basis that Sharpies were used to fill them out.

The saga, which came to be known as #SharpieGate, went viral on social media but failed to gain traction elsewhere as the Department of Homeland Security debunked the claim.

Still that did not keep Trump's legal team from filing a similar lawsuit.

"The claims are baseless," Hobbs said in an interview with a local NBC affiliate days after the election. "At this point folks are grasping at straws."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Brakkton Booker is a National Desk reporter based in Washington, DC.