It will take some time to understand the upcoming election.
There are several races that are shaping up to be nail-biters.
Voters had some messages to convey.
As the smoke clears, here is what Arizona Republic opinion writers think.
When this is over, we need to change our election system because there was no conspiracy to rig the printers or count votes.
30% of the voting centers in the county were affected by the malfunction with printers that took some 7 hours to fix.
Republican voters are furious even if that has no effect. The breakdown put a torch on the nerves as they always are on Election Day. We are looking at a potential crisis because of the foolish declaration that she has already won.
She will lose and her voters will be angry.
Republicans who run elections in the county wouldn't try to undermine their own voters. The affected were voters who didn't trust the election system and went to the polls.
The log jam is likely to be found when the election is over and the managers do a postmortem.
That doesn't really matter.
The system is not fast enough to increase distrust. People are asking what is wrong with the county.
States have built election systems that are fast. We are able as well.
Phil has a column.
We should declare victory before the contest ends.
That is what Tom Horne did in his race.
The race was still too close to call when the latest results were released.
A large part of the votes that have yet to be counted are from the county that has been a Democratic stronghold for the last several cycles.
Is this the behavior we want from the person in charge of public schools?
When do we flip-flops on when to stick to an objective strategy?
After it became clear that he was going to lose the attorney general primary, he refused to concede.
Why is it okay for you to call yourself a winner before the game is over? It's not consistent at all. It's fair to call it dishonest.
Is this behavior we want to teach children?
Greg Moore writes a column.
Most other states will have a lieutenant governor in 2027 if the current voting trend continues. The first two person gubernatorial ticket would be on the ballot.
You might say that is just one more layer we don't need, but that's not true. The solution to the criticism is to have the second-in-command take over an existing position.
It seems that it is embraced across party lines.
The Legislature referred the proposition to it's author. The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan group that supports left-wing causes.
What's the reason? The person next in line to ascend to the position would be from the same party.
You can argue that keeping things the same would be a good deterrent. Neither major party nor voters agreed.
The deputy editor is Abe Kwok.
One of the candidates for the Arizona Senate appears to be heading to the showers.
Eva Burch is a nurse and she has a six point lead over Robert Scantlebury.
The only legislative district that leans Democratic is the Mesa district.
It would be a pickup for Democrats if it held. Scantlebury defeated the more moderate Republican in the primary.
He had to leave because he didn't want to honor Trump.
Self sabotage is discussed.
Laurie Roberts writes a column.
The critics agree that the so-called Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act is misleading.
It turned out to be very clever.
The measure, which won a strong majority of Arizona voters' support, was sold as a solution to medical debts, even though it's much broader than that. The amount of a home and vehicles that are exempt from debt collection is raised.
It restricts the ability of the lender to collect on non medical debts.
Critics predict that passage will lead to higher borrowing costs for consumers, especially for the lower income group that is intended to benefit from the measure.
Business types argue that if the costs are passed along to everyone else, the losses will be less.
It is not known if that is campaign rhetoric or an actual consequence of the law.
The deputy editor is Abe Kwok.
Mark Kelly is the best at proving that character and human quality are important.
The Democratic senator is in a close race with the Republican, but he might have enough votes to win.
Kelly is good at tricking people into voting for him. He is a person of substance who can look anyone in the eye and say what he is going to do.
Today, the only thing that matters in politics is personal fame and the enrichment that comes from it.
Many Arizonans seem to have seen past political affiliations and voted based on what was best for the country.
Democrats need Kelly to win in order to retain control of the Senate. If Kelly wins it will be because of his personal and political attributes and not because he is a democrat.
Elvia Daz is an editor.
Voters were cool with who was already doing the job, so it's hard to draw conclusions from the election results.
The two incumbents got the most votes.
It's difficult to discern what voters were thinking beyond that. If early results hold, they also appear to have chosen two of four candidates in a Republican slate, who were recruited by outgoing incumbent Mark Lewis, and a school board member with Democratic ties.
Was this just a partisan issue? I don't know. You would think each candidate on the GOP slate would have gotten the same number of votes.
Is name recognition the only reason for it? Who was the campaign's hardest to win? It's difficult to tell. Seago didn't answer any questions about her candidacy. She is not well known. Even though the homebuilders ran ads for them, Lisa Bullington,Shelby Duplessis andCory Mishkin were the lowest vote-getting candidates.
It's hard to discern clear trends when the vote is split among many candidates, so I'm not so sure what this says. It's clear that this is going to be a rough ride for the winners, given how little water will soon be flowing through the canals.
Put your hands together.
Digital opinions editor.
It will be interesting to see how many undervotes there were in key races like the U.S. Senate and governor.
I think there may be enough people who wouldn't vote for either candidate because they didn't want to change the result.
Digital opinions editor.
The down-ballot race in southeastern Arizona has statewide ramifications.
There are two Active Management Areas in Cochise County, one for the Willcox basin and the other for the Douglas basin.
The Sulphur Springs Valley is made up of both. The Willcox basin is experiencing more problems with over-pumping than the Douglas basin.
If early results don't change, the AMA in Willcox is on track to fail, while the AMA in Douglas is on course to pass.
Expect a tale of two cities in the valley as one adopts management goals and the other doesn't, while the other continues with no regulations.
Expect a lot of murmuring and celebrations in other rural areas about what this means for them and who might try it next.
Digital opinions editor.
Ken Bennett is going back to the Arizona Senate. He had a high point in his political career when he was a senator. He was revered by both Republicans and Democrats back then.
Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God." Bennett was one of the people who brought calm to the chaotic situation.
He used Kleenex boxes to simplify the state budget. He wants to tackle pension reform in his wheelhouse.
Bennett surprised everyone with some detours into the Obama "birther" conspiracy and some eccentric right-wing politics that led him to the Arizona audit and election denialism.
The old Ken Bennett reminded people that we can disagree, but still treat each other with kindness. It's perfect if we get the Bennett. The last decade has seen a lot of smash-mouth politics.
It would be too much for him to bring his guitar back to West Washington Street and reprise the song.
Phil has a column.
The Republicans came roaring back in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the votes were counted.
Mark Kelly's lead was cut to 5 percentage points with hundreds of thousands of votes still to be counted. Adrian Fontes is ahead of him by almost 5 points.
Then there's the person namedKatie. She is holding onto a 0.6% lead over the other. It will require a miracle for that to hold.
The voters who chose Mark Kelly did not vote for the other person. Adrian Fontes is performing better than her.
On a night when Donald Trump got what he wanted in governor's races in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois and elsewhere, he may have had a hand in the rescue in Arizona.
Laurie Roberts writes a column.
The Democratic incumbent for Arizona's schools chief is being challenged by a Republican. Something is wrong with Arizona.
Voters seem to be favoring a move back to the dark ages where a white guy with no school-age children could dictate or at least promote his antiquated ideas.
Critical race theory is said to teach kids to hate America. History lessons are that way. It should be taught if it happened.
As attorney general, he did everything he could to end bilingual education and gut Chicanos studies.
The majority of Arizona's 1.1 million students are minorities. The answer is easy to understand.
A bunch of voters are threatened by the fact that a lot of minority kids are learning about American history.
Elvia Daz is an editor.
CarlosGarcia isn't having a great day. As of mid-morning Wednesday, the anti- police activist was in front of the newcomer by a small margin.
As the votes are counted, the margin will keep changing. The City Council was taken by storm by his distrust of police and efforts to hold them accountable.
The police accountability office was established despite resistance from fellow council members. His tendency to defund the police could be hurting him now.
Phoenix is Arizona's capitol and a liberal bastion, yet the mayor has moved more to the center, snubbing liberals.
Elvia Daz is an editor.
Voters in the county didn't like judges getting a few strikes against them.
They will have ousted three Superior Court judges if the results hold.
Arizona voters have not retained a judge before. Eight years have passed since it happened. It is the first time that voters may boot three people, only one of which did not meet the standards.
The other two weren't universally accepted. The two commission votes against Crandell were against him. All three got low marks in temperament, especially patience and a lack of compassion, based on information in public reports.
Some people don't like the review system because it only scratches the surface on questionable rulings. Voters took its reviews very seriously when they voted.
The commission gave the same number of dents to the state Supreme Court justice. Voters statewide are on track to keep him, even though he is less popular than his Supreme Court colleagues.
Don't make of that what you will.
Digital opinions editor.
The Arizona election analysis was originally published on the Arizona Republic.
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