/ Modified nov 6, 2015 11:58 a.m.

Final Ballot Count Due Monday in Pima County Election

Elections director blames slow ballot tally blamed on software, provisional ballots.

Election Voting Ballot Tucson Pima County spot 1
AZPM Staff

It's estimated to take almost one week for Pima county to finish counting ballots for the most recent election.

County Elections Director Brad Nelson said his office is waiting on the county recorder to verify provisional ballots.

"I haven't been able to speak with them," Nelson said in an interview Friday. "I think that it is likely to be done by tomorrow, Saturday and we will count those ballots over the weekend."

In addition, Pima County on Saturday will conduct a hand count of ballots cast in Tuesday’s election. Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan said in an interview this week.

The hand count will come as the county tries to deal with what have become perennial problems counting votes. Results of Tuesday's election remained incomplete as of Friday morning, and no counted votes had been posted since Wednesday.

Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan said the Board of Supervisors asked for the hand count and she authorized it, to check the accuracy of vote-counting machines. She called the hand count voluntary and said under state law, it won’t change any election outcomes.

"Regardless of what happens with the hand count, the election results don’t change," Reagan said. "Keep in mind, it’s just to check the accuracy of these machines, which I think is great, and we all want to make sure these machines are working. But it doesn’t change the election results.”

Reagan said under state election rules, voluntary hand counts cannot override machine-counted results. She said if the voluntary hand count changes the outcome of any race or proposition, officials would have to ask a judge in court to order an official recount.

On Tuesday night, the county posted results from 126,000 early ballots a little more than one hour after the polls closed. Then the system bogged down, and fewer than 5,000 more ballots were counted in the next three hours, during which county Elections Director Brad Nelson blamed new software.

On Wednesday, the county said in a press release that it had about 20,000 more votes to process, and later in the day posted results from about half of those.

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