There’s a delay on the race between candidates Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema’s for the open U.S. Senate seat in Arizona—it’s close and every vote needs to be counted.

And the counting continues three days after the election.

Since Tuesday night there have been allegations from the Arizona Republican Party that Adrian Fontes, the Maricopa County Recorder, engaged in “premeditated destruction of evidence” and “voting irregularities”. But that was clarified in a GOP lawsuit that took issue with how the early-ballot signatures were being verified.

Fontes told The Arizona Republic that keeping the ballots and uncounted would be illegal, “and I refuse to disenfranchise voters.”

The process from mail-in-ballots takes time especially if they are sent on deadline or brought in to polling places.

When a signature cannot be verified by checking signature records the county attempts to contact the voter in order to confirm their ballot.

An article from The Arizona Republic added the update at 6:55 Mountain Standard Time that Sinema had taken the lead over McSally by 20 thousand-plus votes.

If Sinema wins, then the senate would gain a democratic seat and that hasn’t happened in Arizona in 30 years.

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes has been accused by the Arizona Republican Party of “… ‘intentionally’ destroying evidence tied to lawsuit over early-ballot signature verification.” tweeted azcentral reporter, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez.

“Fontes has argued that verifying the signatures ensures all legitimate votes are counted.”

As of Friday,the Arizona Republican party and the Maricopa County Recorder agreed to a settlement in court. According to The Arizona Republic, this“requires all counties to continue checking signatures until 5p.m. Nov. 14.”

Amy Chan, former state election director under Republican Secretary of State Ken Bennett, tweeted

‘Unfounded allegations of voter fraud are totally irresponsible and should rightly be condemned because they shake voter confidence & can affect future participation. Voter fraud in my experience is almost nonexistent. Shame on him for making these claims.”

As of this report—Sinema is ahead,  49.3% to  McSally’s 48.3% on Friday night Nov. 9 (updated 8:28pm ET).

(Updated Sat. Nov. 10. 5:30 p.m.) The Arizona secretary of state’s office indicates that Sinema leads McSally by more than 28,600 votes due to ballots from Maricopa, Pima, Mohave and Navajo counties. There are still 268,000 outstanding ballots according to the secretary of state’s office.