The hand count audit of Pima County CD2 ballots cast in the race between Congressman Ron Barber and challenger Martha McSally is scheduled for today. The final results will be released after a judge certifies the recount next week.
The recount has been overseen by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office at the order of Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper. The results of both counties’ recounts will be reported to the Secretary of State’s Office and through that office to Judge Cooper.
Only part of Pima County is in Congressional District 2 and there were more than 187,000 ballots cast in the district. However, roughly 252,000 ballots had to recounted because the county does not sort early ballots by precinct. As a result, all of the more than 206,000 early ballots cast in Pima County for the Nov. 4 election have to be run through the tabulation machines, though only the CD2 votes were be counted. There are roughly 46,000 ballots that were cast at CD2 precinct polling places Nov. 4, about 6,000 of them provisionally.
The political parties will randomly select 5 percent of the CD2 precincts for a hand count of polling-place ballots only.
The court and/or the Secretary of State will release the official results of the recount.
Last week, the Arizona Republic reported that a possible upset could occur as a result of the recount and/or the hand count. “Recounts almost never change the result. … But being this close, it’s almost certain there will be a (lawsuit contesting it),” Tom Irvine, a Phoenix election attorney told the Republic.
“Those ballot-counting machines are very, very good, but they’re not perfect,” Kory Langhofer, a Phoenix election attorney told the Republic. “It wouldn’t be shocking if there were some variances. … The question is: Will the variance be enough to count?”
Irvine said the change, if any could be 10 to 40 votes. With that in mind, and the 130 plus votes for Barber that were not counted by Pima County, a lawsuit is likely.