A Pima County race that seemed settled suddenly is not so.
After thousands more votes were counted on Wednesday, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos' lead over challenger Heather Lappin dropped to just 199 votes.
Nanos, a Democratic incumbent, has led throughout the counting by thousands of votes, 6,456 votes as of Sunday, but that had dropped to 1,595 votes Wednesday afternoon. Further counting dropped the lead below 200 Wednesday night as Lappin nipped at Nanos' heels.
As of 8:24 p.m. Wednesday, Pima County reported that 98 % of votes had been counted and there were an estimated 8,813 votes left to count. Of those, 6090 are provisional ballots, meaning officials are checking whether the voter is registered, is eligible, already voted or had no ID.Β
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, left, and Heather Lappin
The current margin, 199 votes, is just 2 % of the number of votes left to count.Β
If Nanos loses, that would run against the grain of the results so far in Pima County, where Democrats have made gains even over their historically strong positions in local elected offices. If current results stand and Nanos wins, only one of the top 11 county offices would be held by a Republican.
And that Republican, Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy, is winning by a surprisingly narrow margin over Democrat Vanessa Bechtol.Β
