While Joe Arpaio’s political dominance carried him to a sixth term as Maricopa County sheriff, his 2012 re-election reveals a geographically divided electorate and dwindling support among Republican-leaning suburbanites.

In Arizona, Republicans are losing the battle over Hispanic voters.

Hispanic voter registration leans Democratic by a wide margin, and polling reinforces their support for Democratic candidates.

An agreement reached Tuesday at least temporarily resolves a dispute over 130 provisional ballots that could prove decisive in Arizona’s last undecided congressional race.

For the first time since the 1980s, Arizona Democrats had a fighting chance for a U.S. Senate seat.

And even though their candidate lost, Democrats are hoping Richard Carmona’s candidacy is a sign of a better future for them in Arizona, where Republicans have dominated for decades.

Shortly after noon on Election Day, Paul Garrett walked into his polling place in Mesa, ready to cast his vote. But when he got into line and told the poll worker his name, he was advised that he had already received his early ballot in the mail, so he would have to cast a provisional ballot.

The wave that carried a Republican supermajority into the Legislature two years ran into a seawall tonight, when the G.O.P. appeared to have lost four seats in the Senate, thereby giving up the power to override a gubernatorial veto.

Jeff Flake entered the race more than a year and a half ago as Arizona’s U.S. senator in waiting, only to end up facing the Democrats’ toughest candidate in a quarter century. But the Democrats’ best play for an Arizona Senate seat since 1988 wasn’t enough to keep the six-term congressman down.

When Arizonans make their way to the polls Nov. 6, a small army of volunteers will meet them there, hoping to prevent the illicit manipulation of the election.



The group’s leaders don’t want to disclose the details of their plan and elections officials have expressed mixed feelings about their tactics. Nonetheless, Verify the Vote AZ is training its volunteers in locations throughout the state and promises to make an impact on Election Day.

Richard Carmona’s spat with the man he hopes to replace took a new turn as the two presented starkly different interpretations of a letter Kyl wrote the Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful in 2005.

Political ads peppering Arizona airwaves in this contentious election season have cost at least $29.4 million, based on newly mandated electronic filings to the Federal Communications Commission.