November 21, 2024

Contentious Pima sheriff’s race officially headed for a recount

The two candidates are currently separated by one-fifth of a percent of votes.

Pima County Sheriff Candidates Incumbent Chris Nanos (D - left) and challenger Heather Lappin (R - right) are both running for Pima County Sheriff.
Left: Pima County Sheriff's Department, Right: heatherforsheriff.com.com

The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a recount of the Pima County Sheriff’s race alongside the official 2024 election canvass at a special meeting on Thursday.

When vote counting wrapped up, Sheriff Chris Nanos narrowly maintained his lead over Republican Heather Lappin by 495 votes, and Daniel Jurkowitz with the Pima County Attorney’s Office told the board a recount is required by state law.

“In the canvass you just approved, the margin for the office of Pima County Sheriff was .2%, that meets the statutory requirement for an automatic recount,” he said.

The sheriff’s race was defined by controversy in its late stages when Nanos placed Lappin, a corrections’ lieutenant, on administrative leave three weeks before election day. The Board then approved a criminal investigation for that decision, voting unanimously for the Arizona Attorney general to determine whether the sheriff violated any elections laws.

Recounts rarely change election results, and it is likely Nanos will be elected for another term. A FairVote study of statewide election recounts between 2000 and 2023 found that only one out of every 2,310 recounts resulted in a reversal.

Pima County Elections officials said a two page ballot means over a million ballot cards to reprocess, and the recount would likely take two weeks. The results of the recount will be sealed and read aloud in Superior Court.

The Board also unanimously approved the 2024 election Canvass of 518,595 votes.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona