Republican Martha McSally, Democrat Ron Barber at AZPM debate Oct. 7, 2014.Listen:
Democrat Ron Barber's campaign has asked the Arizona secretary of state to consider "errors and omissions" in the vote count for the 2nd Congressional District before finalizing the results.
Incumbent Barber trailed Republican Martha McSally by 161 votes after certification of balloting in Pima and Cochise counties this week. By law, that small margin requires a state-supervised recount but only after the state canvass and certification, scheduled for Dec. 1.
Barber's campaign lawyer asked in a letter Friday to Secretary of State Ken Bennett that before the final certification, he look into including more than 160 ballots that were disqualified for various reasons in the two counties. The letter described the margin in the election as "razor thin."
"On behalf of the Ron Barber for Congress campaign, I write to alert you to errors and omissions contained in the Pima County and Cochise County certifications of the 2014 General Election," lawyer Kevin Hamilton said in the opening of the letter, which was hand delivered Friday.
Officials in both counties said they disqualified some ballots because the voters had not signed the provisional voting forms, others because voters were in the wrong polling places and others for voters who were not registered or had registered past the deadline.
Under state law, voters who go to the wrong polling places or who do not sign their provisional voting forms cannot have their ballots counted.
Hamilton included in his letter to Bennett copies of letters to the Boards of Supervisors in Pima and Cochise counties asking them to delay their certifications until the votes were counted. Both boards turned down the request, the Pima board Tuesday and the Cochise board Thursday.
Also included were 156 "declarations" of registered voters who Hamilton said complied with election laws in casting their ballots.
Early in the vote count, McSally's campaign went to court seeking disqualification of provisional ballots lacking poll workers' signatures. A Superior Court judge turned down the request, and it was dropped.
Since then, McSally and Barber have declined comment on whether they would take further legal action on the ballot count.
Political analysts have said the closeness of the election and disputes over some of the ballots could lead to legal steps before and after the result is finalized.
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