Some races hinge on final count in 53 percent turnout

Nearly 10,000 ballots remained to be processed and counted as of Wednesday morning, according to Yuma County officials.

Although Arizona Revised Statute allows 10 days for some ballots, Yuma County's election workers have been busy trying to get the final results tabulated quickly. The remaining ballots include 7,439 late early ballots and 2,239 provisional ballots for a total of 9,678.

A total of 32,074 ballots were counted as of early Wednesday morning. Of those, 20,314 were early ballots. Yuma County has 75,625 registered voters.

When all the ballots are tabulated, that will represent a voter turnout of approximately 53 percent, said Yuma County Recorder Robyn Stallworth Pouquette.

Her office had processed 23,714 early ballots by election day, but 3,400 of them remained to be counted Wednesday, she said. In addition, 1,383 early ballots were in the vault to be verified and 2,656 late early ballots were turned in at the vote centers on Election Day as well as the 2,239 provisional ballots.

She anticipates that her staff would have the remaining ballots processed by Thursday and ready to send on to the election board to count.

Those ballots could impact at least a couple of close races in Yuma County: judge of Superior Court Division 4 and treasurer.

As of 2:36 a.m. Wednesday, with all 42 precincts reported, the race for judge of Superior Court Division 4 remained extremely close. Challenger James Clark maintained his slim lead with 12,674 votes for 50.09 percent to 12,538 votes for 49.55 percent for incumbent David M. Haws.

The race for treasurer also remains close, with incumbent David Egeberg still in the lead with 15,312 votes for 51.65 percent to 1,4303 votes for 48,25 percent for challenger Angela Pancrazi Moreno.

A couple of the supervisor races may also be impacted, depending on which districts have the most remaining ballots and if there's a significant shift in the voting trend for candidates:

• Board of Supervisors District 4 — Incumbent Tony Reyes has 2,322 votes for 60.64 percent to challenger David Lara's 1,493 votes for 38.99 percent.

• Board of Supervisors District 5 — Incumbent Greg Ferguson has 3,366 votes for 54.84 percent to challenge David Lerma's 2,071 votes for 33.74 percent.

Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853. Find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YSJoyceLobeck or on Twitter at @YSJoyceLobeck.