On Tuesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joshua Rogers rejected a request by CD5 candidate Christine Jones to have all ballots cast by legitimate voters counted. Hundreds of uncounted votes remain; while a mere 9 votes separate Jones and Biggs.
Biggs had been behind much of the race, but on Saturday he pulled ahead, taking a 9 vote lead.
Just like Congressman Ron Barber tried to do nearly two years ago, Jones is fighting for voters, who were disenfranchised by a cumbersome system.
At issue are votes that were not included in the final unofficial count. According to the Arizona Republic, the uncounted ballots include:
•About 130 votes that were disallowed because the signatures didn’t match one on file
•195 ballots that were submitted unsigned
•And at least 300 potential voters, who were told the wrong place to cast their ballots by poll workers
When the ADI contacted the Maricopa County Recorder’s office last Friday, staff advised that they had simply stopped processing imperfect ballots despite the fact that the Recorder’s Office had received many of them on or before the August 30 election.
The Arizona Republic reports that Judge Rogers “will give lawyers for all sides a chance to argue their case more fully in a hearing Thursday. County officials are expected to certify election results Friday morning.”
While elections attorney, Kory Langhofer, claimed that the margin would not likely change in a recount of the CD5 votes, Langhofer was quoted as saying of the Barber McSally race: “Those ballot-counting machines are very, very good, but they’re not perfect. It wouldn’t be shocking if there were some variances. … The question is: Will the variance be enough to count?”
In that case, McSally’s lead of 161 votes was reduced to 130 votes.