Primary Election in Pima County

Brad Nelson, left, Pima County elections director, helps Lisa Matthews, Pima County election marshal, put up a “Welcome Voters” sign after it was blown down outside of the Pima County voting site at Morris K. Udall Recreational Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Rd., in Tucson, Ariz on August 4, 2020.

Forty-one Republican ballots were mishandled Tuesday at the Morris K. Udall Recreation Center in-person voting site, according to Brad Nelson, Pima County's elections supervisor.

Voters were given and turned in incomplete ballots that only included the federal races and not local and state ballots, according to Nelson, who chalked the mistake up to "human error."

The on-site inspector reviewed the sign-in sheet and determined that all the voters were Republican. He said that once the incorrect ballots were turned in, the voters cannot vote again.

Local and state races included the Republican primaries for the county supervisor and state house.

Nelson went to the recreation center — the site of two polling places — and explained the error after Vic Williams and Steven Spain, two Republican candidates for the Pima County Board of Supervisors, were summoned by a voter who turned in an incorrect ballot.

Williams posted on Facebook that he feels bad "for the voters that we're not able to cast a vote for their candidate such as myself."

Spain told the Star that he's concerned by the holes at the voting site, but ultimately that "There are 41 voters who did not get their voices heard today."

Nelson told the Star that, as of 3:30 p.m., there were no other major issues with voting on Election Day.


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Contact reporter Justin Sayers atjsayers1@tucson.comor 573-4192. Twitter: @_JustinSayers. Facebook: JustinSSayers.