A hand count of select races from the Nov. 3 elections confirmed the results of an electronic count.
Last month, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to have the elections department conduct a hand count of some ballots.
The department randomly selected results from one of the county bond questions, one of the Tucson City Council races and one of the city ballot propositions.
The ballots were selected from four percent of county precincts, or from a total of 10 precincts.
In all, 2,683 ballots were counted by hand. Twenty representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties conducted the counts.
Supervisor Ray Carroll said he was pleased the board was able to move forward with the hand count and that the results were confirmed.
“I’m satisfied that we could come up with a way to collectively get it done,” Carroll said.
Results of the hand count mirrored the election outcomes.
“I’m thrilled to see that everything turned out all right,” said Jeff Rogers, Pima County Democratic Party representative on the county Elections Integrity Commission.
Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson said there was a one-vote discrepancy in the hand count.
The ballot in question did not have a clearly marked oval for the city charter question, Prop. 201.
That caused the vote for that question on that one ballot to not register with the computer tabulation system.
The hand count, while confirming election outcomes, was done at the request of the Elections Integrity Commission and was not binding on election results.
Commission members asked for the audit to confirm the effectiveness of newly purchased tabulation machines.
“By doing these audits you make sure you put these things to rest,” Rogers said.
The board of supervisors had directed the elections department to conduct a hand count of one of the races in the Oro Valley recall election as well, but the race was not included because county officials said two of the town’s four requirements could not be met.
The town had asked that the county make certain results of the hand count not be used to affect the election outcome and for Pima County to pay any associated costs.
The county agreed, but could not meet demands that full assurances were given from the Arizona Attorney General and Secretary of State offices that the county had legal authority to conduct the hand counts, and that if any lawsuits related to the audit were filed the county would be released from the legal claims.
County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry had questioned the legality of conducting the hand count when the issue first came up in October.
Huckelberry said state law lacked specificity as to whether a county could conduct such audits in non-contested races like in ballot questions.
The county sought clarification from state officials.
The secretary of state responded that the county would be allowed to conduct the audits and the attorney general basically agreed.
The attorney general, however, did not provide an official legal opinion. Rather, a representative from the office informed the county the law “does not affirmatively bar hand counts.”
