Monday morning, a day most government employees were off for Veterans Day, Cochise County elections staff and volunteers were gearing up to continue the process of checking around 6,600 ballots yet to be tabulated. According to Juanita Murray, elections office director, that number includes the 2,300 provisional ballots that had been verified over the weekend by staff at the Recorder’s Office. The rest are early ballots.
A report issued late Monday afternoon, however, puts the number of uncounted ballots at more than 9,000. Secretary of State Ken Bennet’s office issued a press release at 5:11 p.m. Monday stating that more than 342,000 ballots were still to be counted across Arizona. Of that total, Cochise County was on record with 6,795 early ballots still to count, and 2,326 provisional ballots yet to tabulate, putting the total uncounted ballots at 9,121.
The remaining ballots in Cochise County could play a role in determining who will represent Congressional District 2, a race between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Ron Barber. With
Joining the elections staff and the representatives from the Republican and Democratic parties were a few observers from Washington, noted attorney John MacKinnon. He was there on behalf of the Ron Barber (D) campaign as a local observer. MacKinnon said the Congressional District 2 race in Arizona is very close one.
“This is one of the tightest races that has yet to be determined,” added MacKinnon. “So, both parties have representatives here observing. I’m just an extra pair of eyes.”
According to the state election results posted so far for the CD2 seat, Barber has a whisper of a lead over Republic candidate Martha McSally with just 698 votes as of Monday.
Full Article: Confusion clouds uncounted ballot total | The Sierra Vista Herald.