Supervisors approve the 2024 Election canvass and recount for Sheriff
PIMA COUNTY Nov. 21, 2024 – The Pima County Board of Supervisors Nov. 21 voted 4-0 to approve the 2024 General Election canvass. The Board has a statutory duty under state law to approve the canvass, which completes the election in Pima County, barring any recounts.
In a subsequent meeting Thursday, the Board voted 4-0 to ask the Superior Court to direct a recount in the race for Pima County Sheriff. The incumbent candidate, Sheriff Chris Nanos, and challenger Heather Lappin, a deputy sheriff lieutenant, are separated by just 495 votes, which is within the requirement of a new law mandating recounts in certain races if the difference between candidates is a half-percent or less of the votes cast. The Sheriff’s race is within a fifth of a percent, with Sheriff Nanos leading.
The canvass will be transmitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, which will include the County’s state and federal results in the state’s canvass of the election. The 2,795-page County canvass accounts for every vote cast in the election by precinct.
County Elections Director Constance Hargrove said Nov. 19 that once her office has the court order, it will take about two weeks to complete the recount, which involves rerunning the 518,595 ballots processed for the election through the tabulation machines. Since the election involved a two-card ballot, there are more than 1 million cards that must be run through the tabulators. The ballots from the election are stored in boxes by the batch number used for the Nov. 5 election. The Department must maintain the integrity of the batches as it conducts the recount, which adds to the necessary logistics and record-keeping of the recount and is part of the reason why the recount will take several days.
Results of the recount will be presented to the Superior Court Judge who directed the recount, and the results read from the bench.
|
