A handful of 2024 races area headed to a recount, including one legislative seat

An elections worker scans mail in ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Nov. 7, 2022. Photo by Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Election season is over, which means it’s now recount season, thanks to a 2022 law that greatly expanded the threshold for recounting close races. 

In Maricopa County, three races currently qualify for a recount: Fountain Hills Town Council, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors District 3 and State Representative for Legislative District 2. In Pima County, the race for Sheriff will likely see a recount, and a city council race in Page in Coconino County likely will, as well. 

Those races all fall within the threshold created by a law signed by former Gov. Doug Ducey that triggers an automatic recount if the race has a margin of 0.5%. Each race will need to have the election officer for each race filing a court order saying the race qualifies for the recount. Prior to the change in law, automatic recounts were generally triggered when the margin between candidates was less than 0.1% of total votes cast for the two candidates.

Before a recount takes place, state law says that a city or town council must certify that one is necessary and then file with a superior court judge, who would then order the recount. The new law triggered multiple recounts in 2022, but none changed the original outcomes of the races. 

In the race for the second House of Representatives seat in Legislative District 2, the margin is only 0.08% or 132 votes which will trigger an automatic recount. 

And even though only 17,106 ballots were cast for the Fountain Hills council race, Maricopa County will also need to recount all 2 million ballots cast in the election because ballots are not sorted by precinct or city. 

Here are the races slated for recount after the election is officially certified:

• Maricopa County Board of Supervisors District 3: Kate Brophy McGee (R) and Daniel Valenzuela (D) are separated by 0.04%
• State Representative for Legislative District 2: Justin Wilmeth (R) and Ari Daniel Bradshaw (R) are separated by 0.08% 
• Fountain Hills Town Council: Matthew Corrigan and Clayton Corey are separated by 0.03%
• Pima County Sheriff: Chris Nanos (D) and Heather Lappin (R) are separated by 0.2%
• Page City Council: Tom Sunshine Preller and John Kocjan are separated by 0.12% 

During the recount, all electronic voting equipment will undergo logic and accuracy testing, and paper ballots will be re-tabulated. 

Additionally, state law requires a separate mandatory hand-count audit of precincts, and 5% of vote centers will undergo a hand count by election workers and representatives from both parties.