PHOENIX — No rest for the weary. Election workers were busy Saturday producing another batch of 85,000 votes.
"The types of ballots are mainly late earlies dropped off on election day," said Bill Gates, Maricopa Board of Supervisors Chairman.
The votes counted Saturday favored Republican candidate for Governor Kari Lake.
Lake gained 3,001 votes over Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs in Maricopa County, narrowing Hobbs' lead to less than 2%.
As of Saturday, Hobbs has 50.7% of the vote to Lake's 49.3%.
2,258,767 votes have been counted. But predictions that this might be the start of a "red wave" in Lake's favor may be premature.
"I think most analysts would have expected to see 55-45 for Lake on a drop like this," said ABC15 elections analyst Garrett Archer.
Most of the ballots released Saturday came from Republican strongholds in north Phoenix and the East Valley.
By comparison, Republican candidate for County Attorney Rachel Mitchell picked up 9,000 votes, 6,000 more than Lake.
ABC15 Elections Analyst Garrett Archer says at this point both candidates have pathways to victory, however, Lake's is becoming more challenging.
"Now Lake's going to need about a 20-23% spread between Hobbs and her on the remaining ballots. She's going to need higher than 60-40 at this point," Archer said.
There is still time to do that.
Approximately 190,0000 ballots remain to be counted in Maricopa County.
The Kari Lake campaign says the "red wave" is coming.
They will find out if it hits on Sunday when Maricopa County releases its next batch of votes.
