Pima County supervisors approve canvass after elections staff corrects 16-ballot error

Pima County elections officials told the Board of Supervisors they identified and corrected a 16-ballot discrepancy before the board voted to approve the canvass of the July 21 primary.

Director Hargrove of Pima County Elections said the post-election audit covers on-site, election-day ballots only and does not include early ballots handled by the recorder's office. She described finding 16 express-vote ballots in Vote Center 41 that did not match the center's check-in records and said staff determined the same operator had run those ballots twice. "So 16 ballots just did not match," Hargrove said, explaining staff removed the vote center totals from the count, reprocessed the ballots and had political party chairs witness and sign off on the correction.

Supervisor Connell praised election staff effort and noted strong voter participation, saying "over a 186,000 Pima County residents utilized their right to vote" in the primary, about a 28.9% turnout. After the explanation and brief remarks, Connell moved to approve the canvass; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote of the supervisors present. The board recorded no opposing votes; Supervisor Scott was noted as not present for the meeting.

The board's approval completes the formal canvass of the July 21 primary. Elections staff said they will implement additional training and procedural tweaks to reduce the risk of similar check-in or processing errors in future elections.