Leads have grown, shrunk and flipped as officials continue counting votes here in Pima County and southern Arizona.

Democratic former state senator Kirsten Engel has edged ahead of Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani by 209 votes in the Tucson area's 6th congressional district, which spreads into portions of four other counties.

Ciscomani’s lead had been 1,600 Thursday afternoon but shrunk to 86 by early evening, before Engel, who had led Tuesday night in early returns, went ahead of him later Thursday night. The race is still too close to call.  

Democrat Ruben Gallego still holds his lead against Republican Kari Lake in the race for Arizona’s Senate seat.

As of Thursday afternoon, Gallego had received about 50% to Lake’s 48% of votes counted so far, a margin of just over 50,000. Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana had received the remaining 2%.

The state races in Tucson area District 17, as of Thursday night, had Democrat John McLean outpolling Republican Vince Leach by 1,318 votes in the fight over who will represent the district in the Senate.

Kevin Volk’s lead in the race for one of two house seats in LD 17 has remained; he has received about 35.5% of votes counted so far.

As of Thursday afternoon, Republican Rachel Jones is in second with nearly 32.8% of the vote. Republican Cory McGarr is in third, taking about 31.7% of votes counted so far.

Unofficial results have been released since Tuesday night to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office’s results page.

According to the Secretary of State’s “Ballot Progress” page, there are an estimated 175,039 “uncounted ballots” in Pima County. That’s as of Wednesday night, the last update the county made to the page.

County races

The tightest race in Pima County is for the District 4 seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Steve Christy, the sole Republican on the board seeking his third term, now leads Democrat Vanessa Bechtol by 1,323 votes as of Thursday night. . Christy has received about 50.7% votes counted so far.

In the race for Pima County sheriff, Democrat incumbent Chris Nanos has maintained his lead over Republican challenger Heather Lappin.

Nanos had received about 51.4% of votes counted as of Thursday afternoon, a margin of 9,213.

Unofficial results have been released by the Pima County Elections Department via the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office’s results page.

Democratic Supervisor Rex Scott maintained his lead in the District 1 rematch between against Republican challenger Steve Spain. Scott had received about 54.7% of votes as of Thursday afternoon, a margin of 8,342.

In 2020, Scott beat Spain for the seat by just 730 votes.

District 2 Supervisor Matt Heinz’s lead over GOP challenger John Backer remains. Heinz had taken about 62.4% of votes, a margin of 11,923, as of Thursday afternoon.

In the District 3 race, an open seat on the county board, Democrat Jen Allen leads the three-candidate race, taking about 53.7% of votes so far with a margin of 6,750 over Republican Janet “JL” Wittenbraker.

Wittenbraker is in second, taking about 42.8% of votes. Independent Iman-Utopia Layjou Bah has received about 3.54% of votes counted so far.

District 5 supervisor and board chair Adelita Grijalva’s big lead over Independent Val Romero remains. Grijalva had received about 74% of votes as of Thursday afternoon, leading Romero by a margin of over 23,000.

Election workers process ballots Wednesday before sending them over to be counted at the Pima County Elections Department in Tucson.


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