Judge Denies McSally Request To Halt Ballot Counting In CD2 Race

By Kate Sheehy
November 10, 2014
Martha
Kate Sheehy
Martha McSally on election night telling supporters it may be a long wait for results in the race against Ron Barber.

There is still not a winner named in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District race between Republican Martha McSally and Democratic Incumbent Ron Barber. Over the weekend McSally’s campaign challenged the verification of provisional ballots in Pima County. On Monday a judge denied the request.

As expected, this race has come down to the wire. People have been watching results come in for the past week since the election. For the most part, Republican Martha McSally has kept a small lead over Democratic incumbent Ron Barber. Pima County has roughly 4,000 provisional ballots left to count. The Elections Department says there is a small number of ballots that are going back to the Recorder’s Office for further review, all are from District 2.

Judge James Marner of Pima County's Superior Court. has denied a temporary restraining order that would have prevented Pima County from counting some provisional ballots. The county Elections Department says it will resume counting about 9,335 ballots by 3 p.m.

The McSally campaign sent a letter to Pima County’s Elections Department and Recorder’s Office claiming the county verified ballots that are missing a signature from an election official. 

A spokeswoman from the Barber campaign said this is an effort by McSally to silence a significant number of Latino voters, who make up 36 percent of the county’s population, according to the U.S. Census.

A statement from the campaign also said this is a reminder of 2012 when McSally unsuccessfully contested ballots in Cochise County. The Cochise County Elections Department said it has two provisional ballots left to complete its counting.

The Pima County Recorder’s Office checked 10,102 provisional ballots and found 767 to be invalid. A spokesperson from the county said the trend so far has been that about two-thirds of ballots are from District 2. 

Elections officials said counting will continue through the Veterans Day holiday. 

Correction: Updated to show Judge James Marner is of Pima County's Superior Court.