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.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has accepted an invitation to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in Washington D.C.

In the days following the election, the Maricopa County Elections Department endured harassment, vandalism and a possible cyber attack – all while the office was trying to count a record number of votes left over from Election Day.

Two well-funded ballot initiatives went down in defeat last month, but as their final finance reports showed, their campaign coffers had perhaps foreshadowed the elections’ outcome.

The clerical error that led to two different versions of a ballot measure was an honest mistake that did not confuse voters, and thus didn’t warrant Secretary of State Ken Bennett’s decision to bar measure from going to voters, the Supreme Court said in an opinion published today.

Following several close contests and two weeks of counting, Secretary Ken Bennett and other state officials today signed the official canvass and certified last month’s election results.

The move effectively ended the 2012 campaign cycle and heralded the start of the new one.

The controversy over a secretive nonprofit’s funding of two ballot measure committees put a renewed focus on campaign finance disclosure this year.

A review of the final 2012 election results reveals the projections for the newly redrawn congressional districts were mostly accurate.

With the 2012 election now in the rearview mirror, the results show that the number-crunching done last year by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission was nearly spot on.

For those who want to see more of Arizona’s Hispanic community participate in the political process, 2012 provided both a reason to celebrate and an impetus for continued effort.