Pima County Sheriff’s race too close to call at 187 vote lead – updated

Incumbent Democrat Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos holds a small lead of 187 votes over his Republican challenger Lt. Heather Lappin, a commander at the Pima County Jail. According to the AZ Secretary of State’s website, www.azsos.gov, there are 7588 total provisional ballots still to be counted for Pima County. Some reporters are already suggesting a recount may occur.

Current votes: Heather Lappin 241,299; Chris Nanos 241,486

On General Election night Nov. 5, 2024 (10 days ago) Sheriff’s Nanos’ lead was 25,119 votes but has steadily decreased as the early and provisional ballots were processed for signature verification and counting. As many of you know, Republicans tend to vote at the polls, instead of early voting by mail.

I posted previously about the Clean Elections debate on September 3, 2024 between these two candidates. This was a surprisingly well viewed debate with 2900 page views to date. Nanos had put Lappin on paid administrative leave on October 14 for allegedly assisting an AZ Luminaria reporter with access to phone calls with a prisoner at the jail, and for knowledge about a Pima County Sheriff’s Sgt. campaigning off-duty against Nanos.

Watch Clean Elections debate for Pima County Sheriff

Nanos was first appointed to this seat as Sheriff by the Pima County Board of Supervisors back in August, 2015, but lost his election bid to Republican Mark Napier in Nov. 2016 (44.07% to 55.66%).

In a rematch in Nov. 2020, Nanos defeated Sheriff Napier (50.34% to 49.66%), and is now running for re-election in the General Election of 2024.

Nanos defeated former Deputy Sheriff Sandy Rosenthal in the Democratic Primary on July 30, 2024 (59.99% to 40.01%). Lappin defeated two Republican primary challengers Bill Phillips and Terry Frederick (44.71% to 40.22% to 15.06%) for the Republican nomination for PC Sheriff.

Stay tuned daily as the rest of the ballots are processed and counted. I’ll update or comment below if there are any lead changes.

The other close races I’ve been watching seem to now have strong Republican leads and some Dem candidates have conceded:

CD 6 Juan Ciscomani, as Kirsten Engel has conceded (Ciscomani’s lead is now at 10,822). In. Nov. 2022 Ciscomani won by 5,232 votes.

LD 17 Senate Vince Leach leading by 3045 votes, over Dem John McLean (deceased)

UPDATE: Candidate McLean died in car crash today: https://tucson.com/news/local/government-politics/elections/tucson-police-crash-john-mclean-vince-leach-fatal-dui-michael-martin-creel/article_93e04b0e-a38e-11ef-91ee-5b085698a588.html

Pima County Supervisor D 4 Steve Christy, as Vanessa Bechtol has conceded (Christy’s lead is now at 5551 votes).

But remember these figures are not the finally tally, as provisional ballots are still being counted.

11/15/24 update: Nanos leads by 256 votes. 11/16/24 No change in vote tally for Sheriff’s race. Others updated.

11/17/24 update: Nanos ahead by 495 votes and counting may be done, but no official word yet from Pima County Elections. News outlets have declared the Sheriff’s win by 495 votes, with recount likely: https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/111724_sheriff_election/nanos-ekes-out-narrow-reelection-with-495-vote-win-over-lappin/