Three days after Election Day on Nov. 5, the U.S. Senate races in the western states of Arizona and Nevada remain undecided.

Democratic candidates in both races have maintained a slight lead, offering hope for Democratic leader Chuck Schumer that his incoming minority might not shrink further. Republicans have flipped four senate seats so far and are set to start next year in the majority. 

As of Friday morning, incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., leads her Republican challenger Ret. Army Capt. Sam Brown by more than 17,500 votes, or 1.2 percentage points. The deadline for mail-in ballots to arrive and be counted in Nevada is Saturday. With tens of thousands of ballots potentially outstanding, The Associated Press said on Thursday that the race is still too close to call.

So far, Rosen has 665,840 votes, or 47.76%. Brown has earned 648,292 votes, or 46.50%. Nearly 96% of Nevada precincts have reported their results. 

PA SEN-ELECT MCCORMICK THANKS CASEY FAMILY FOR DECADES OF SERVICE AS DEMOCRAT DECLINES TO CONCEDE

“There are still tens of thousands of uncounted ballots in the race for U.S. Senate, and the candidates are separated by less than one percent,” the Brown campaign said on Thursday. “There are also thousands of ballots which need to be cured. Sam Brown is committed to ensuring every legally cast, valid vote is counted.”

On Wednesday, Rosen said, “We feel good about the results we’re seeing, but there are still thousands of votes to be counted. Our democracy takes time, and I’m confident that we will win as more votes come in.” 

REPUBLICANS WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE OF HOUSE MAJORITY AS KEY RACES REMAIN TOO CLOSE TO CALL 

Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego are competing for the open Senate seat in Arizona. (Reuters)

In neighboring Arizona, only 76.05% of precincts are reporting. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Marine, currently leads Republican Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor, by more than 43,000 votes. The winner of this contest will succeed retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who formerly was a Democrat. She left the party after clashing with its far-left element and decided against running for re-election as an independent when it became clear there was no path for her to do so.

The Arizona results are pouring in slowly, mostly because of how the state counts votes and the complexity of this year’s ballot. The delays were expected to be most pronounced in Maricopa County, the state’s largest county. 

TOSS-UP MAINE HOUSE RACE MOVES TO RANKED-CHOICE TABULATION WITH GOLDEN, THERIAULT SEPARATED BY 1,414 VOTES

An election worker removes a ballot from an envelope to count and inspect the pages inside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. Pairs of election workers from different political parties open mail-in ballot envelopes containing voted ballots after they have completed signature verification.  (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

“For the first time since 2006 here in Maricopa County, we have a two-page ballot, and we have races on both sides of those,” Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates told Fox 10 Phoenix last month. “We’re talking about four different sides of contests, seventy-nine contests on average. We anticipate that it will take people a little bit longer.”

Officials said a GOP-backed state law that adds extra steps to verify ballots might also cause delays. 

The law requires poll workers to wait for the polls to close before counting begins. Then, all green envelope ballots that were dropped off need to be hand counted before they are delivered to the elections center, where the signatures are verified, and the votes are counted. 

If the election office finds an error on a voter’s ballot, the voter is permitted five days to fix it. Election workers say it could take up to two weeks for every ballot to be cured and counted.

Mail ballots also need to be scanned, sorted and signature-verified before they can be counted. And voters may return mail ballots at any time before polls close on Election Day. 

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“The most important thing you can be doing for the next few days is helping [Turning Point Action] cure these ballots and make sure every vote counts in Arizona,” Lake posted on X on Thursday. 

The AP reported there are still hundred of thousands of ballots left to count in Arizona, including nearly half a million in Maricopa County. Officials are currently counting early votes that arrived in October. Until more ballots are counted, the race remains too early to call. 

The New York Jets hope to build on one of their best defensive performances of the season when they face the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., with kickoff set for 4:25 p.m. on CBS.

New York (3-6) sacked Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud eight times last Thursday in their 21-13 victory. The Jets hadn’t posted a total like that all season. New York did allow 106 rushing yards to Joe Mixon and another 59 rushing yards to Stroud. So, the run defense still isn’t quite where New York wants it to be.

But the pass rush went to another level last week, and the Jets hope to keep that moving on Sunday.

The Cardinals (5-4) are coming off one of their best defensive performances of the year so far after holding Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams without a touchdown pass and limiting running back D’Andre Swift to just 51 yards.

That’s not a big surprise considering Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon, in his second season, was formerly a defensive coordinator.

Here are the defensive players to watch for both teams entering the game.

DE Micheal Clemons

New York needed the kind of game it got out of Clemons last Thursday. He sacked Stroud twice (linebacker Jamien Sherwood did as well). Those were Clemons’ first sacks since Oct. 6 in London and gave him 4.5 sacks for the season. The Jets need him to get to the quarterback more consistently the second half of the season.

DT Quinnen Williams

After a slow start to the season, Williams is starting to pick up steam. He had 1.5 sacks and forced a fumble against Houston last week. But take a deeper dive and you’ll see that he’s sacked the quarterback four times in the last three games. That’s four of his five sacks to this point in the season.

LB Jamien Sherwood

As noted earlier, Sherwood sacked the quarterback twice last Thursday. Those were his first two sacks of the season. But the Jets pay him to tackle and he’s been doing that a lot this season. His 80 tackles lead his closest teammate by 16 (Quincy Williams has 64) and he’s also defended a pass. Every week, Sherwood steps up and produces.

S Budda Baker

Speaking of tackling machines, Baker is having an incredible season for the Cardinals. He has a team-leading 90 tackles (including 58 solo shots), with four tackles for loss and two passes defended. Arizona would love to see him get an interception, but then again, he’s doing just about everything else.

DT Dante Stills

The Cardinals don’t have a high-octane pass rush and made a deal earlier this week to get some depth for the edge. But Stills has been their most consistent producer up front, as he leads the team with 3.5 sacks. He also has 26 tackles, three tackles for loss and has forced a fumble in eight games.

LB Zaven Collins

Collins gives the Cardinals a little bit of everything from the second level of their defense. He has 37 tackles, with 22 solo stops. He has three sacks, which is just behind Stills for the team lead. He also has five tackles for loss. He’ll be among one of the most productive defensive players on the field on Sunday.

PHOENIX — U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego’s lead over Kari Lake in the race for Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat continued to decrease as of Thursday night.

Drops from multiple counties, including about 70,000 votes from Maricopa County, cut Gallego’s advantage to 49.8%-48.1% — a difference of 1.7 percentage points (43,698 votes), with about 2.6 million votes tallied as of Thursday evening, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office results page.

As of Thursday morning, Gallego’s advantage was 52,578 votes as tallies from Republican-heavy rural counties were unveiled.

Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana was pulling about 2%.

Gallego’s lead fluctuated for most of Wednesday as those rural counties that reported results earlier in the day favored Lake. Maricopa County, the state’s largest county by far, released the results of about 175,000 votes slightly favoring the Democrat in two evening drops.

Gallego was leading Lake by 5.4 points in the initial results posted after the polls closed Tuesday night.

The winner will replace Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who did not seek reelection.

Regardless of who wins the Arizona race, Republicans will win control of the Senate, giving a boost to Donald Trump’s agenda as he returns to the White House.

Who are Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake?

Gallego is the representative for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of south, west and downtown Phoenix. The Marine veteran has served five terms in the U.S. House.

Gallego entered the race in January 2023 and ran unopposed in the July primary election.

Lake, the Republican candidate, is one of Arizona’s most well known political figures and popular in GOP circles.

Lake, recognizable in the Phoenix market from her years on TV before getting into politics, built an enthusiastic following among Republicans with her unflinching support for Donald Trump and her steadfast promotion of false claims of election fraud.

She lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs in her first run for office. Lake has since unsuccessfully fought the results of the 2022 election in court.

Lake entered the race in October 2023 and defeated Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the primary.

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