Carmona Closes In On Flake In Bizarre Arizona Senate Race Result

America could get an answer to that question soon, as the U.S. Senate race in Arizona is playing out in a bizarre way that could result in former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona beating his competitor, six-term U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, a week after conceding the election to Flake.

More than 340,000 ballots have yet to be counted in the race for the open Arizona Senate seat, but Democrat Carmona conceded the election last Tuesday night to Republican Flake, who was up by about 6 percent of the vote with about 75 percent of precincts having reported results, Reuters reported.

In the week since the election, Flake's lead has decreased to about 4 percent of the vote tally -- or 79,547 votes according to the most recent results, according to Reuters. About 2 million voters cast ballots in the Flake-Carmona race.

Representatives for the Carmona campaign say it is continuing to follow the results as the votes are counted:

"We're monitoring it closely, and we want every ballot to get counted, and we will take any necessary steps to make sure that happens," Carmona campaign spokesman Andy Barr told Reuters. "The count is going very, very slowly, and it is hard for us to know where it will end up." 

The Arizona Secretary of State's office reported Monday afternoon that about 171,889 early votes and 171,047 provisional ballots remained uncounted.

Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the Arizona Secretary of State's office, said the office is working to count all the outstanding votes counted quickly and accurately.

"We're focused on accuracy, rather than expediency," he told Reuters. "We're cognizant that we need to get this done quickly, but we're not going to cut corners."