About 5,275 primary ballots remain uncounted in populous Maricopa County. So far, about 737,000 ballots have been tallied. That’s roughly 99% of the total vote.
Of those outstanding, officials said 1,600 are early ballots that have gone through the signature verification process and are awaiting tallying. Another 3,600 have missing or mismatched signatures and require voters to correct, or “cure,” the issue. About 75 are provisional ballots, which are cast when questions about a voter’s eligibility must be resolved before their votes can be tallied.
County officials will continue tallying votes in the coming days. Another results update was expected Saturday.
More than 11,000 ballots remain to be tallied statewide, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office ballot progress tracking tool. A handful of counties weren’t reporting estimated totals of uncounted ballots to the tracker as of Friday evening.
Full, unofficial results from counties statewide were currently anticipated Monday.
Arizona election results are unofficial until local and state officials have tallied all ballots and certified the results.
Follow live coverage from Republic reporters throughout the days after the primary election.
Arizona primary day: Recapping the scene and the news from the July 30, 2024, election
Results will be updated throughout the week: Arizona primary election results
Former Phoenix Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari’s lead over former state Sen. Raquel Terán dwindled more Saturday with another release of Maricopa County ballots.
Ansari now leads Terán by just 67 votes.
Ansari and Terán are the front runners in the Democratic primary in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District. The incumbent, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is running for the Senate this year.
In the Maricopa County superintendent of public instruction race, Republican Shelli Boggs continued to lead incumbent Steve Watson.
— Dan Nowicki.
Former Phoenix Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari’s lead in the 3rd Congressional District race with Sen. Raquel Terán narrowed to 89 votes after the latest results were released Friday in Maricopa County.
Terán has been steadily closing the gap between the two, after trailing by thousands of votes Wednesday and hundreds of votes Thursday.
The winner is running to replace current U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat, who had represented the Democrat-dominated district in south Phoenix and the southwest Valley for five terms.
A law passed with bipartisan support expanded the threshold for recounts in the wake of Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow win of Arizona in the 2020 presidential race. A recount will be triggered if the final margin is less than half a percentage point of all ballots cast in that contest. The previous margin was one-tenth of a percentage point.
— Sasha Hupka
Incumbent falls behind in county school superintendent contest
An incumbent fell out of first place Friday evening in the heavily contested Republican primary for Maricopa County school superintendent.
Days after voting concluded, Shelli Boggs took the lead in the race from incumbent Steve Watson. The two have been neck-in-neck in early results since election night. About 1,660 ballots now separate them, with a few thousand ballots left to count countywide.
The position has historically been a low-profile role. But the school superintendent’s office is quickly emerging as a new political battleground in Maricopa County, largely due to the position’s influence over the makeup of school boards.
Watson, a former career and technical education teacher, has held his post since 2016. He previously told The Arizona Republic that he undertakes a thorough process for school board appointments that prioritizes community input.
Boggs — and fellow challenger Nickie Kelley, who is trailing in the race — has criticized his approach to the responsibility. Boggs said she would be more proactive in meeting with each district and involving the community in her applicant vetting process.
Watson and Boggs have said they don’t believe their personal politics should have a place in school board appointment decisions. Kelley said she would prioritize “traditional values” in school board appointments.
— Sasha Hupka
With ballot counting still underway, former Phoenix Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari has the lead in Arizona’s Phoenix-area 3rd Congressional District.
Her top rival, former state Sen. Raquel Terán, made gains when a new round of results was released Thursday evening. The distance between the candidates narrowed from thousands to just hundreds of votes.
The district heavily favors Democrats, meaning that whoever wins the primary is all but guaranteed to win in the November general election.
— Laura Gersony
About 46,100 primary ballots remain uncounted in populous Maricopa County. So far, about 695,000 ballots have been tallied.
Of those that are outstanding, officials said 41,500 are early ballots that are going through the signature verification process. Another 4,500 have missing or mismatched signatures and require voters to correct, or “cure,” the issue. About 100 are provisional ballots, which are cast when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility that must be resolved before their votes can be tallied.
County officials will continue tallying votes in coming days. More than 73,000 ballots remain to be tallied statewide, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office ballot progress tracking tool. A handful of counties weren’t reporting estimated totals of uncounted ballots to the tracker as of Thursday evening.
Full, unofficial results from counties statewide are currently anticipated Monday.
— Sasha Hupka
Former state legislator and emergency room physician Amish Shah has defeated Andrei Cherny, Marlene Galán-Woods and three other candidates in the Democratic primary for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, according to the Associated Press.
The district is in the northeast Valley and includes Phoenix and Scottsdale. Shah will face incumbent Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., in November.
— Arizona Republic staff
The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com have created a map that allows you to see where votes for Republican U.S. Senate candidates are coming from in every precinct in the state.
When you click on a county, a map of that county with dots and precinct borders will appear. Each dot represents five voters for a particular candidate, and they are randomly dispersed throughout the precinct (in other words, the dot does not represent where the voters actually live).
Every time the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office announces new voting results, the map will update to reflect that.
Cherny concedes defeat in Arizona congressional race
Andrei Cherny conceded defeat to Amish Shah in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District race, though no winner has been declared in the election.
“While it’s hard to come so close and fall short, win or lose, there are dreams worth chasing and things worth fighting for — and democracy, freedom, and America’s future couldn’t be higher on that list,” Cherny said, adding that he fully supports Shah in November.
If victorious, Shah, a former emergency department physician and state lawmaker, would face off against incumbent Republican David Schweikert to represent the northeast Valley in Phoenix and Scottsdale area.
— Taylor Seely
Surprise Councilmember Aly Cline conceded the mayoral race to Kevin Sartor on Thursday, while announcing her retirement from politics.
In a Facebook post, Cline congratulated Sartor on his victory, recognizing him as the city’s next mayor.
“As the votes are in and my term comes to an end in December, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the support and trust you’ve placed in me,” wrote Cline, who won her District 2 council seat in 2020. “Serving the city of Surprise has been an incredible honor, and I am deeply thankful for the connections and friendships I’ve made along the way.”
Sartor won the nonpartisan race in a landslide. He’ll replace outgoing Mayor Skip Hall.
“I’m grateful for the Surprise residents for their trust and vison of the city. It’s exciting,” the 41-year-old Sartor said Wednesday, acknowledging that he was still waiting for final results of Tuesday’s race.
The 71-year-old Cline said that while she’s retiring from politics, her “commitment to our community remains steadfast.”
— Shawn Raymundo
Tyler Kamp declared victory in the Democratic primary election for Maricopa County Sheriff. As of Thursday afternoon, Kamp was leading Russ Skinner by more than 20,000 votes.
Skinner, who served for 43 years at the Sheriff’s Office and was appointed to replace former Sheriff Paul Penzone, was running for a full term.
Kamp previously worked as a shift commander, gang enforcement sergeant and homicide detective for the Phoenix Police Department.
In a statement, Kamp thanked his family and campaign staff, and commended Skinner’s service to the Sheriff’s Office.
“As sheriff, I want to ensure we have a safe community where all can thrive,” Kamp said. “I want to build on the successes of Sheriff Penzone and continue to move the MCSO forward with integrity, accountability, and effective policing that ensures a safe Maricopa County for all.”
Reached by phone, Skinner said he would not be making any endorsements in the sheriff’s race.
Kamp will likely face Republican Jerry Sheridan, a former chief deputy at the Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, in the general election.
— Jimmy Jenkins
Stephen Richer lost the Republican primary for Maricopa County recorder to a right-wing challenger, a result that could dramatically change election administration in metro Phoenix.
Incumbent Richer conceded on Wednesday morning to state Rep. Justin Heap, a member of the Arizona Legislature’s far-right Freedom Caucus.
Arizona is a battleground state in presidential elections, in which the Trump campaign and its local allies tried to overturn his 2020 loss to President Biden.
Richer defended the integrity of Arizona elections and pushed back on false claims of voter fraud.
Heap has avoided taking a stance on the outcome of the 2020 election and was endorsed by Republicans who reject the results, including Kari Lake, the Arizona GOP Senate nominee who refused to concede her own loss in the 2022 gubernatorial.
Richer in a lengthy post on X said: “Elections have winners and, sadly, losers. And in this one, it looks like I’m going to end up on the losing side of the column.
“But that’s the name of the game. Accept it. Move on,” he wrote, before congratulating Heap and pledging to use his remaining months to continue the “efficient and lawful execution of my duties.”
— Sasha Hupka, Fernando Cervantes Jr. and Ben Adler
HEREFORD — JD Vance toured the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County Thursday, going to the heart of a top election issue – immigration- on his first trip to battleground Arizona as former President Donald Trump’s running mate,
He blamed Vice President Kamala Harris as the reason for the nation’s immigration troubles during his visit, using an unfinished portion of the border wall as the backdrop to make his case.
Vance notably sidestepped President Joe Biden in taking on Harris, referring to the Biden administration as the “Harris administration” in his remarks now that Biden has dropped out of the presidential race.
“It’s hard to believe until you see it with your own eyes, just how bad the policies of the Kamala Harris administration have been when it comes to the southern border,” Vance said.
— Stephanie Murray
The American Bar Association says that attorneys who helped former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election should be held accountable by state bar associations and that the legal profession must protect democracy during the 2024 election.
The bar association − the world’s largest voluntary organization of lawyers − is calling on the nation’s 1.3 million lawyers to lean on their legal training to volunteer as poll workers and to provide free legal advice to local election officials instead of taking action to undermine democracy.
It’s all part of a bipartisan effort co-led by former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, who served under President Barack Obama, and retired Judge Michael Luttig, who was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit by President George W. Bush.
The bar association put the pair in charge of leading the profession’s response to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Johnson and Luttig gave USA TODAY an exclusive interview before they release their recommendations to the rest of the field at a nationwide summit on Friday.
“They are uniquely qualified and are uniquely obligated to defend America’s democracy and the rule of law, among other things,” Luttig told USA TODAY. “Lawyers take an oath to do just that. And then, by way of almost a footnote, lawyers were largely responsible for the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”
Luttig and Johnson have been holding events in swing states to find out how lawyers can apply their training to restore faith in American elections.
— Erin Mansfield
Congressional candidate Abe Hamadeh, an attorney who secured an early endorsement from former President Donald Trump, is poised to succeed Rep. Debbie Lesko.
He has won the Republican nomination for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.
Unofficial results showed Hamadeh leading the crowded field by several points. His top rivals — venture capitalist Blake Masters, Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, and former U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, and State Sen. Anthony Kern — trailed him at some distance.
In Hamadeh, West Valley voters picked a Trump-styled candidate who built his political profile around factually dubious or discredited election theories. While running for Congress, he continued to contest his loss in the 2022 race for Arizona attorney general, one of the narrowest election margins in state history.
The race was hard-fought and saw several campaign setbacks for Hamadeh. May brought the revelation that Hamadeh privately called election deniers “crazies” in 2023 text messages. In the months leading up to the election, Masters spent significant campaign resources attacking Hamadeh’s personal and religious background. And in the campaign’s final days, Trump announced he would support Masters, too, as publicly released polling failed to show Hamadeh with a decisive lead.
— Laura Gersony
More than 100,000 ballots left to be counted in metro Phoenix
About 113,000 primary ballots remain to be counted in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous area.
That number includes early ballots dropped off at the polls, cast via drop box and received by postal workers immediately before and on election day. Poll workers calculated by hand that about 85,000 early ballots were dropped off at the polls Tuesday.
The total that remains to be counted also includes a small number of provisional ballots, which are cast when questions about a voter’s eligibility must be resolved before their votes can be tallied.
Statewide, it is unclear exactly how many ballots remain to be tallied. Mohave, Navajo and Yavapai counties were reporting a combined total of nearly 38,000 outstanding ballots to the Arizona Secretary of State on Wednesday afternoon, but several larger counties had yet to report how many remained uncounted. That includes Pima County, which spans the Tucson area.
Counties are expected to continue tallying votes and dropping results sporadically in the coming days. Election results in Arizona are unofficial until local and state officials have tallied all ballots and certified the results. Full, unofficial results are currently anticipated on Monday.
— Sasha Hupka
So you want to be vice president? Prepare for one of the most invasive reviews of your personal life in American politics.
Before they can be selected as a running mate, vice presidential contenders undergo a vetting process that seeks to unearth their darkest secrets − and even those of their family, friends and business partners.
“It’s very intense,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who was vetted as a potential running mate to former President Barack Obama in 2008 and again in 2016, when he was chosen to be the vice presidential candidate to Hillary Clinton.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., one of the eight Republicans vetted by former President Donald Trump this year, described it as a “pretty interesting” process that took “a deep dive into every decision in your life.”
— Riley Beggin
The Nov. 5 general election matchup for Arizona’s Senate seat is official now that rivals Kari Lake, a Republican, and Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, have won their parties’ nominations.
Previewing the election’s home stretch, Lake on Tuesday delivered remarks focused on the issues of immigration and the economy to paint a stark picture of the choice before voters, while Gallego’s opening salvo centered around abortion rights, a topic expected to drive Democratic turnout this election.
The Arizona Senate race is one of a handful of competitive contests in the November general election that could determine which party controls the upper chamber in the 119th Congress.
— Laura Gersony
Kamala Harris and her vetting team are interviewing running-mate finalists as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee nears a decision for her pick of vice president by early next week, according to a source familiar with the process and multiple media reports.
Harris’ vetting team has already met in private with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, POLITICO and Bloomberg reported. The vice president also plans to hold sit down talks with her leading candidates as she approaches her final pick as Democrats ready for their national convention in Chicago starting Aug. 19.
Democratic campaign aides have cautioned against reading too deeply into any one particular meeting Harris or her team is holding as it concludes a truncated vetting process for a job that would potentially make the person holding it next in the line of presidential succession.
— Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy and Joey Garrison
Just under 100,000 primary ballots remain uncounted in populous Maricopa County. So far, about 642,000 ballots were tallied.
Of those that are outstanding, officials said 95,000 are early ballots that are going through the signature verification process. Another 3,100 have missing or mismatched signatures and require voters to correct, or “cure,” the issue. About 1,400 are provisional ballots, which are cast when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility that must be resolved before their votes can be tallied.
County officials will continue tallying votes in coming days. They said voters can expect daily result drops until counting is complete. Full, unofficial results from counties statewide are currently anticipated Monday.
— Sasha Hupka
Kelly Cooper defeated Zuhdi Jasser, Dave Giles and Jerome Davison to clinch the GOP nomination for Arizona’s 4th Congressional District seat, according to the Associated Press.
Cooper’s victory Wednesday sets up a rematch against incumbent U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, D.Ariz., in the November general election. Cooper and Stanton previously faced off in the 2022 general election — and Stanton handily defeated Cooper.
The district, which includes Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and Chandler, leans blue.
— Taylor Seely
JD Vance went on the attack during a rally in Glendale on Wednesday night, bashing Vice President Kamala Harris as a “phony” and a “San Francisco liberal” who is “never gonna be the president.”
The rally marked Vance’s first trip to Arizona as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, coming to a battleground state that Trump lost by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago. He was joined on stage by Republican Senate nominee Kari Lake, who won the state’s GOP primary on Tuesday.
“It’s time to tell Kamala Harris ‘You’re fired,’” said Sen. Vance, R-Ohio, invoking Trump’s reality TV slogan.
Vance took aim at Harris’s record on immigration ahead of his trip to the southern border Thursday. He played up the years Harris spent living in Canada as a teenager.
“Let us count the ways Kamala Harris has screwed up this country in the last three-and-a-half years,” Vance said.
He was introduced on stage by Turning Point Action boss Charlie Kirk, who was an early endorser in his Senate race. Republican Reps. Eli Crane, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs also were in attendance.
— Stephanie Murray
Attorney Abe Hamadeh defeated venture capitalist Blake Masters and Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma for the Republican nomination for the highly contested 8th Congressional District seat in the northwest Valley, according to the Associated Press. Hamadeh was endorsed by Trump, although Trump also backed Masters in a last-minute announcement.
Hamadeh previously ran unsuccessfully for Arizona attorney general but narrowly lost to Democrat Kris Mayes. Hamadeh contested the results in courts but has repeatedly lost in both Maricopa and Mojave counties.
He has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to hear his appeal, which is pending. The state’s high court previously declined Hamadeh’s request for an expedited timeline. In one case, Hamadeh’s lawyer, Ryan Heath, also faces about $100,000 in sanctions for what a Maricopa County judge called a request to “overturn the will of the people.”
The 8th Congressional District race drew a crowded field of candidates after U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., announced she would step down. Lesko successfully nabbed the GOP nomination for Maricopa County District 4 Board of Supervisors seat in Tuesday’s primary.
— Taylor Seely
Ryan Winkle and Scott Neely both acknowledged their loss in the Mesa race for mayor to The Arizona Republic and expressed their disappointment in the two candidates who will move forward. Winkle and Neely have staunchly different visions for Mesa, but both viewed Mark Freeman and Scott Smith as the same side of the coin.
Neely, who wanted to push Mesa toward more conservative policies, said it doesn’t matter which of the two wins in November.
“They’re not that much different except that Mark wears a cowboy hat and Scott wears a suit,” Neely said.
He said either would continue the “John Giles agenda.” Giles is term-limited and will depart the mayoral post.
Winkle said it was pretty obvious the math was not in his favor to move forward to a November run-off and that it was more of a loss for Mesa because residents “just got more of the same.”
“I think people are really looking to be excited about new faces and new ideas and not the same old,” Winkle said.
Carey Davis, who also was on the ballot but trailed the top two by a significant margin, did not immediately respond to The Republic for comment.
— Maritza Dominguez
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and abortion-rights advocates slammed vice presidential nominee JD Vance at a Kamala Harris campaign roundtable in Phoenix ahead of his appearance in Glendale on Wednesday.
“I got a message for you, too, JD Vance,” Mayes said. “We’re going to defeat you — Kamala Harris is going to defeat you and your crazy ideas once and for all in November.”
She said everything is on the line in this election to make sure Republican nominee Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. Vance don’t step into office.
“They want to ban IVF. They want to potentially ban contraception,” Mayes said. “We have a very extreme Supreme Court now, who have also made it clear they they’re willing to go down that path.”
Mayes said Harris was one of the first people to call her in April when the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the state’s 1864 near-total abortion ban.
“Kamala Harris knew instinctively how awful that decision was, and she said to me, ‘Whatever you need, let me and President Biden know and you’ll have it to fight that decision,’” she said.
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, said Arizonans should understand that Vance, who opposes abortion rights, has a record of voting against IVF and birth control.
“He’s on the record asking the Department of Justice to invoke and enforce the Comstock Act and ban medication abortion by mail and go after states that are allowing medication abortion,” Timmaraju said.
— Sabine Martin
Vice President Kamala Harris will come to Phoenix next week with her soon-to-be-decided vice presidential pick, according to a Harris campaign official.
Harris will campaign in Arizona as part of a cross-country battleground state tour. The visit comes weeks after President Joe Biden stepped aside and Harris became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.
The campaign did not disclose what day Harris and her running mate will be in Phoenix.
— Stephanie Murray
This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined by reporters from the Republic’s politics team.
They dissect what we know on election night and what that could mean for November, including voter turnout, polling places and results.
— Amanda Luberto
That number includes early ballots dropped off at the polls, cast via drop box and received by postal workers immediately before and on election day. Poll workers calculated by hand that about 85,000 early ballots were dropped off at the polls Tuesday.
The total that remains to be counted also includes a small number of provisional ballots, which are cast when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility that must be resolved before their votes can be tallied.
Statewide, it is unclear exactly how many ballots remain to be tallied. Mohave, Navajo and Yavapai counties were reporting a combined total of nearly 38,000 outstanding ballots to the Arizona Secretary of State on Wednesday afternoon, but several larger counties had yet to report how many remained uncounted. That includes Pima County, which spans the Tucson area.
Counties are expected to continue tallying votes and dropping results sporadically in coming days. Election results in Arizona are unofficial until local and state officials have tallied all ballots and certified the results. Full, unofficial results are currently anticipated Monday.
— Sasha Hupka
The Republican primary race to be Maricopa County school superintendent remained close early Wednesday. It may be days before the winner is known. Full, unofficial election results are currently anticipated by Monday. Races may be called sooner, depending on margins and the number of early ballots that remain uncounted.
Incumbent Steve Watson had a slight lead over challenger Shelli Boggs. Nickie Kelley was in third place.
Watson, a former career and technical education teacher, was first elected to be county superintendent in 2016.
Boggs, a member of the East Valley Institute of Technology governing board, and Kelley, a math teacher at Tolleson High School with a background in politics, have strongly criticized Watson’s leadership. Both pledged to stabilize the office after an independent audit commissioned by county supervisors found more than a dozen financial practice deficiencies at the accommodation district.
Whoever wins will face Democrat Laura Metcalfe in November. She ran unopposed in the primary. Like Boggs, she currently serves on the East Valley Institute of Technology governing board. She has also been critical of Watson and his financial stewardship of the office.
— Republic staff
Voters dedicated enough to show up in low-turnout primaries are their party’s most dedicated voters, and it seemed Tuesday the Arizona GOP again showed its loyalty to former President Donald Trump and his brand of Make America Great Again politics. MAGA fever has not broken, with a few exceptions.
Hamadeh won Trump’s endorsement, and in several other races Trump-aligned candidates appeared to cruise to re-election or unseat incumbents.
In an upset, state Rep. Justin Heap bested incumbent Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who has stood up to claims of election fraud and received threats as a result. Richer conceded the race Wednesday morning. Heap, of Mesa, is a Trump supporter who as a lawmaker supported election changes like dividing up massive Maricopa County and its voting power.
Former state Rep. Mark Finchem, who lost the 2022 race for secretary of state, appeared on course to defeat incumbent Prescott Sen. Ken Bennett, who has been attacked for splitting from his party on votes at the Legislature. Likewise Sen. Wendy Rogers, arguably one of the most outspoken Trump supporters at the statehouse, held a lead over challenger David Cook, a state representative.
But there were a couple of outliers in the early unofficial results available Tuesday.
A neck-and-neck race in LD17 saw former lawmaker Vince Leach, a more traditional pro-business Republican, with a tight lead over Justine Wadsack, a vocal member of the Legislature’s ultra-conservative Arizona Freedom Caucus. And incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, whose office has successfully defended numerous challenges to election results in 2022, held a commanding lead over Lake-backed challenger Gina Godbehere.
— Stacey Barchenger
Suzanne Gannon, 70, an Oro Valley resident who is a Democrat said the voting process was easy. “I usually drop it in an outside box,” but this election she dropped it off in person.
She knew the volunteers running the polling center and said, “We’re very much a community here.”
Locally, the main issue is a park that the town recently expanded, which she hopes the town continues to expand.
Nationally, she said she felt happy about the upcoming November election.
“I feel the momentum in the last couple weeks has made me happy,” Gannon said.
Jason Anderson, a Republican from Marana, voted in person and said everything went smoothly.
He said he isn’t following any local races closely but is anticipating the general elections.
“I’m wondering what’s going on happen,” he said. “We are just going to have to wait and see.”
His daughter Rebekah Anderson, 20, also voted, and said she prefers voting in person.
“I don’t like mail-in ballots,” she said.
— Sarah Lapidus
Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was the lowest vote-getter in the three-way race for Fountain Hills Mayor. He received just 15% of the votes counted as of early Wednesday morning.
The job of recorder includes some election duties within Maricopa County. Changes in recent years make the recorder responsible for votes cast before Election Day. The office also handles and records documents related to real estate transactions and other matters.
Incumbent Mayor Ginny Dickey and Town Councilmember Gerry Friedel controlled 45% and 40% of the votes counted by that time, respectively.
Arpaio refused to concede defeat when he narrowly lost to Dickey in the 2022 mayoral contest. But he accepted the results this time around.
“The people voted and I didn’t win. But I will congratulate the losers and the winners who did participate in this local election,” Arpaio said.
The 92-year-old added that he is “still going to be very active in the political arena. Nationally and locally,” telling The Republic “I still have a future.”
He wouldn’t say whether he planned to run for office again. He also did not say whether he preferred to see Dickey or Friedel win the election in November, should a runoff occur.
— Sam Kmack
In Mesa, voters gave Scott Smith and Mark Freeman a commanding lead over three other candidates, after ballots continued to be counted early Wednesday. Neither candidate looked on course to get more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff in November.
Likewise, the race for Scottsdale mayor, which could tip the balance of power in City Hall, looked destined for a run-off. Voters gave incumbent David Ortega a narrow lead over Lisa Borowsky and both had a commanding lead over the other challenger.
Scottsdale voters also had many choices for who to represent them on the City Council. After counting early Wednesday, they appeared to be leaning toward Tammy Caputi, Adam Kwasman and Jan Dubauskas. The three top vote-getters will be seated on the next council, but the gap over the rest of the pack remained narrow as more ballots remained to be counted.
Gilbert voters had a choice of two mayoral candidates in a race overshadowed by the town’s handling of the “Gilbert Goons” teen violence scandal. By early Wednesday, Scott Anderson had a comfortable lead.
Election results in Arizona are unofficial until local and state officials have tallied all ballots and certified the results. About 85,000 ballots remain to be counted in Maricopa County.
Competitive races were also on the ballot for Apache Junction mayor and council, Chandler council, Gilbert council, three district council seats in Mesa, Paradise Valley mayor, and Scottsdale council.
— Maritza Dominguez and Sam Kmack
The position of Maricopa County Recorder, a job whose responsibilities include administering elections, changed hands in the last two election cycles. As Tuesday’s results rolled in, it appeared to be on track to change for a third straight time.
Stephen Richer, the current county recorder, conceded to challenger State Rep. Justin Heap.
Election integrity was the top issue in the 2024 cycle, as it was in varying forms in the 2016 and 2020 cycles.
Heap stopped short of saying the 2020 and 2022 elections were “stolen,” as some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, had described them. But he questioned the results and vowed to make changes and increase transparency.
For nearly three decades the post was helmed by Helen Purcell, a Republican who had faced nominal opposition since winning the election in 1988.
That changed in 2016. In March of that year, Purcell tried a new way of managing the presidential preference election. The result was voters standing in long lines for hours.
She lost by a percentage point to Democrat Adrian Fontes, an attorney making his first run for political office.
Fontes was defeated in 2020 by Richer, a Republican who had criticized some of Fontes’s changes in election tactics. Richer famously vowed to make the office boring again.
That would not happen.
Trump contested his loss in the 2020 election, including his narrow defeat in Arizona. That led to lawsuits, hearings and a state Senate review of ballots cast in the state’s largest county.
Richer and Fontes became allies in promoting the integrity of elections in Maricopa County. Richer crossed party lines and said he would be voting for Fontes in his successful run for Arizona Secretary of State. In that race, Fontes defeated an election-denying state lawmaker, Mark Finchem.
The official results will be presented to the Maricopa County Supervisors in a process called a canvass. Richer will take part in that meeting in his capacity as Maricopa County Recorder.
And, if the results hold, he will join Purcell and Fontes in a succession of three Maricopa County Recorders who have administered an election that saw their defeat.
— Richard Ruelas
Mesa voters appear destined to decide a heavyweight contest in November to pick their first new mayor in a decade.
If the early results hold up, that runoff will pit former mayor, former Valley Metro CEO, and one-time gubernatorial hopeful Scott Smith against two-term Councilmember Mark Freeman.
Shortly before midnight, both men issued short statements about the prospect.
Smith thanked his supporters and wrote, “We like where we are sitting and look forward to talking to Mesa voters between now and the General Election.”
Freeman wrote, “A big night for all of Mesa! It looks like I’m heading to the General Election for Mesa Mayor!”
More than an hour later, county elections officials posted a significant update in the ballot counting, and the gap between the two front-runners and the three also-rans grew to a sizeable margin.
— Republic staff
Incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell beat her Republican primary opponent, the Associated Press projected.
Mitchell is a longtime prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, first joining the agency in 1992. She was appointed interim county attorney in April 2022 after Allister Adel resigned. Mitchell then won a November 2022 special election to complete Adel’s term.
Mitchell’s 2024 primary opponent was former Maricopa County Attorney’s Office bureau chief and trial attorney Gina Godbehere, who attempted to run to the right of Mitchell, portraying herself as a “conservative fighter” who would undo the “liberal policies” of Mitchell’s administration.
Mitchell will face Democrat Tamika Wooten, who was the only Democratic primary candidate in the county attorney race.
Wooten, a judge pro tempore, has been a lawyer for more than 30 years. She has practiced defense law, served as a chief prosecutor in Glendale and as a municipal judge in multiple jurisdictions. She announced her candidacy for the 2020 election but failed to get enough signatures to get on the ballot.
Mitchell declared victory Wednesday morning on the social media site X.
“I am grateful to the voters of Maricopa County for demonstrating their trust in me again for this important role of protecting our community,” she said.
— Republic staff
Democrat Tim Stringham called for Arizonans to consider voting for a Democrat for Maricopa County recorder.
Stringham wrote in a Wednesday morning post on X, formerly Twitter, that voters who voted for Stephen Richer in the previous election should “continue to vote for the honest candidate.”
“For all of my Republican friends who are hoping and waiting for the days of the old Republican Party to return – it isn’t. This isn’t a passing phase, this is a new political era,” he said.
Stringham, a military veteran and attorney, will face Justin Heap in the November election.
Richer, the incumbent, conceded the GOP primary for his seat to state Rep. Justin Heap, a Mesa Republican who’s a member of the Arizona Legislature’s far-right Freedom Caucus.
— The Republic staff
Tuesday’s primary election was shaping up to be a low-turnout contest. Countywide, only around 25% of registered voters cast a ballot, either by mail, drop box or in person.
It remains to be seen why, but an unusually early election day in the middle of summer with lots of uncontested races and few marquee contests were all factors.
But voter participation was not even across the Valley’s local races. Turnout was as low as 13% in Avondale, along with uncontested Guadalupe and Buckeye races.
In two contested Buckeye council races 15% of registered voters — fewer than one in six — cast ballots. But in the north end of the Valley, participation was high.
Nowhere was that more pronounced than in hyper-politicized Fountain Hills, where almost half the voters turned out to dump Joe Arpaio’s second bid for mayor and weigh in on a crowded field of council wannabes.
— Republic staff
Democrat running for county recorder: ‘Vote for the honest candidate’
Democrat Tim Stringham called for Arizonans to consider voting for a Democrat for Maricopa County recorder.
Stringham wrote in a Wednesday morning post on X, formerly Twitter, voters who voted for Stephen Richer in the previous election should “continue to vote for the honest candidate.”
“For all of my Republican friends who are hoping and waiting for the days of the old Republican Party to return – it isn’t. This isn’t a passing phase, this is a new political era,” he said.
Stringham, a military veteran and attorney, will face Justin Heap in the November election.
Richer, the incumbent, conceded the GOP primary for his seat to state Rep. Justin Heap, a Mesa Republican who’s a member of the Arizona Legislature’s far-right Freedom Caucus.
— The Republic staff
J.D. Vance will make his first trip to Arizona as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, coming to a battleground state that Trump lost by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago.
Vance will hold a rally in Glendale on Wednesday to make the case against Vice President Kamala Harris, who has her own Arizona visit planned for next week.
“The Democrat’s pro-criminal and open border policies are wreaking havoc on the streets of Arizona,” the Trump campaign said in a news release announcing Vance’s visit. “JD Vance is devastated to see the path of death and destruction left behind by Kamala Harris and her activist friends.”
The following day, Vance will tour the southern border in Cochise County. Vance will be hosted by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, according to Sheriff Mark Dannels, which provides border tours and briefings to educate all interested candidates.
— Stephanie Murray
Republican Jerry Sheridan and Democrat Tyler Kamp have won the primaries in the race to lead the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Associated Press.
Sheridan spent decades working in the Sheriff’s Office. He ended his career with the agency as the second-in-command to former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He was the Republican candidate for the Sheriff’s Office in 2020 but he lost to incumbent Democrat Paul Penzone. Sheridan’s competition for the Republican spot on the November ballot were former Glendale police Officer Mike Crawford and former Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety Frank Milstead.
Kamp is a former Phoenix police officer. He worked as a shift commander, gang enforcement sergeant and homicide detective. He is a fifth-generation resident of Maricopa County with more than two decades of law enforcement experience. His primary opponent was Sheriff Russ Skinner. He was appointed in February to replace Penzone, who stepped down a year before the end of his term. Skinner was a longtime Republican who switched his party registration one day after Penzone announced his departure. State law required the Board of Supervisors to appoint someone of Penzone’s political party as his replacement.
— Republic staff
Incumbent Stephen Richer conceded to Justin Heap in the Republican primary election for Maricopa County recorder.
“Elections have winners and, sadly, losers. And in this one, it looks like I’m going to end up on the losing side of the column,” Richer posted on Wednesday morning on X, formerly Twitter.
Unofficial results show Heap with a narrow lead over Richer, while challenger Don Hiatt fell behind. Democrat Tim Stringham ran unopposed.
The county recorder seat holds power over voter registration and early voting. Maricopa County is one of the largest voting jurisdictions in the country and a political battleground, and the GOP primary largely hinges on election integrity concerns in the wake of voting conspiracies.
In his post, Richer commended the Recorder’s Office staff for their hard work this election season and promised to help whoever becomes the next Maricopa County recorder transition into the role.
— Republic staff
Arizona election races neck to neck
Several races in Arizona’s primary election remain too close to call, including runs for three congressional seats.
Full, unofficial election results are currently anticipated by Monday. Races may be called sooner, depending on margins and the number of early ballots that remain uncounted. It is not yet known how many such ballots remain.
Doctor and former state lawmaker Amish Shah has the lead in a six-way race, with former Arizona Democratic Party chair Andrei Cherny, former journalist Marlene Galán-Woods and Conor O’Callaghan closely trailing for the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional District.
Former Phoenix City Councilmember and Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari narrowly led former Arizona Democratic Party chair Raquel Terán for the 3rd Congressional District Democrat nomination. The winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary is widely expected to defeat the Republican challenger in November’s general election.
Attorney Abe Hamadeh led venture capitalist Blake Masters in a six-way race. Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma trailed closely behind Masters for the Republican 8th Congressional District nomination.
— Madeleine Parrish and Sasha Hupka
State Senate primary elections
District 1, Republican: Former lawmaker and unsuccessful 2022 secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem led incumbent Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, in a three-way race.
District 7, Republican: Incumbent Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, led Rep. David Cook, R-Globe
District 17, Republican: Former four-term lawmaker Vince Leach led incumbent Sen. Justine Wadsack, R-Marana, who who is also a member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus at the Legislature.
Maricopa County primary elections
Maricopa County recorder, Republican: State Rep. Justin Heap, R-Mesa, led incumbent Recorder Stephen Richer, while Don Hiatt, an information technology professional, trailed both candidates.
Maricopa County school superintendent, Republican: Incumbent Steve Watson led challengers Shelli Boggs and Nickie Kelley.
Who is leading in Arizona primary elections?
Kari Lake won the Republan nomination for U.S. Senate over Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. But results were not yet determined in several high-profile races.
Abe Hamadeh was ahead in the GOP race for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, Amish Shah was leading in the Democratic primary for the state’s 1st Congressional District and Yassamin Ansari was leading in the Democratic race for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District.
Incumbent Republican Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer was narrowly behind in his re-election bid, and Supervisor Jack Sellers trailed his GOP challenger Mark Stewart. Mayoral candidates in some of Arizona’s biggest cities, Mesa and Scottsdale, appear headed to runoffs.
— Taylor Seely
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Publish date : 2024-08-01 06:54:00
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