Election News: County recount underway
MOHAVE COUNTY – Elections Directors in Arizona’s 15 counties are conducting a recount of two close statewide races that remain undecided in the November 8 general election. Mohave County Elections Director Allen Tempert and staff moved the process forward Thursday.
A local public logic and accuracy test of county vote tabulating equipment was performed Thursday morning followed by a second test conducted by representatives of the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. Mohave County’s actual recount began Thursday afternoon.
Tempert said Thursday and Friday counting will recess for the weekend and will pick up Monday. He estimated the local recount should be completed by next Thursday.
“The political parties will then do another random draw of two voting precincts to do a vote verification hand count on the two races,” as another check and balance Tempert said. “I will then turn the information over to the Secretary of State’s office for them to release to the Courts on the 22nd of December.”
Interestingly, Mohave County recount totals won’t be publicly available until all county results run through the Secretary of State’s office and Court. So, it’ll be closer to Christmas before citizens can compare the certified vote total to the recount tally.
“Nobody knows what the answers are except me and I send them to them and I’m supposed to eat it and forget all about it, so to speak,” Tempert said. He said the local recount totals should be available to the public on or after December 22.
Tempert said he expects that the Mohave County certified numbers will not exactly match the recount totals in the two races. “There will be a slight discrepancy, no doubt with 84,000 ballots, but it’s going to be very slight,” Tempert said.
The Mohave County electorate heavily favored the two republicans Tom Horne and Abraham Hamadeh over Kathy Hoffman and Kris Mayes in the respective races for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction and Attorney General.
Mohave Arizona
Horne: 60,810 (plus 41,411) 1,255,977 (plus 8,967)
Hoffman: 19,399 1,247,010
Hamadeh: 60,592 (plus 41,009) 1 ,254,102
Mayes:19,583 1,254,613 (plus 511)
Dave Hawkins
