Ken Bennett Says 277,011 Votes Left Statewide, 168,000 in Maricopa County

By Stephen Lemons Tue., Nov. 13 2012 at 11:24 PM

Those true believers holding hope against hope that either Democratic sheriff's candidate Paul Penzone or Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rich Carmona can reverse their fortunes will be further disappointed by Tuesday's tally.

The spread is essentially unchanged in both races.

ARPAIO 616,622 51.29
PENZONE 531,438 44.2
STAUFFER 54,157 4.5

That's an 85,184 vote spread, about the same as yesterday, or 7.09 percentage points.

CARMONA 942,426 45.76
FLAKE, 1,023,493 49.69

Carmona seems stuck behind Flake at about the same amount as Monday, 81,067 votes, or 3.93 percent, according to the SOS website.

More votes are being tabulated, obviously, but the gap is almost unchanged. And with each passing day, it becomes less and less likely that somehow this trend could be reversed by a water-into-wine-type miracle.

Unfortunately, I gave up belief in Jesus Christ and Santa Clause several decades ago.

The county recorder's office is currently taking it on the chin as workers there toil long hours attempting to get all ballots counted as soon as possible.

There's a lot of misinformation and confusion, both locally and nationally, about Arizona's vote count which I will address in an upcoming post.

Till then...

Tags:

Helen Purcell, Ken Bennett, Paul Penzone, Ron Barber, Sheriff Joe Arpaio

jbrooks91

I registered in July having just moved to AZ. When I attempted to vote in the primary, I was given a provisional ballot because my name was not on the polling place roster. I had not requested an perminent early ballot and I voted at my precinct on election day. The poll worker admitted to me that new registrations were not recorded on the poll rosters. Even though the Maricopa County elections website showed that I was registered, I was made to fill out a provisional. Luckily this was corrected by the general election for me, but I believe that this "delay" in recording valid registrations is a loophole designed to suppress the vote of newly registered voters most of whom would be either young or hispanic. I don't buy that 122k provisionals were generated by confused voters.

ip4unot

Thank you, Stephen, for the reasonable report thus far.

I'm just now off the phone with a "John", at the Maricopa Cty tabulation center. He was very helpful but I was very P.O.'d that I'm having to call to bitch about provisional ballots because I keep hearing that they are never even counted. Of the 121,000 provisionals yet to count as of this writing, per, again, John...virtually all of them are from "people who requested Permanent Early Voting but showed up at the polls to vote anyway".

Huh? That sounds like bullshit to me. Can this be explained?

Paul in Phoenix

MaskedMagician1967

Goddamn it Stauffer, you should have withdrawn your name from the race for MCSO shurf.

As for Flake, he's just that: a flake. Carmona offers Arizonans the best choice and it's based on his resume. He knows more about healthcare, women's healthcare, taxes, immigration, etc. than Flake.

danzigsdaddy topcommenter

@MaskedMagician1967 just because Penzone is behind the amount Stauffer drew, doesnt mean he would have got all those votes though. there are people who voted Stauffer simply because they will not vote Dem. if Penzone lost by half or a third of Stauffers votes then it might be a little more realistic to blame him

MaskedMagician1967

1 Like

@danzigsdaddy I still think Stauffer should have withdrawn his name from the candidacy when it became apparent to both him and us that he wasn't serious about trying to unseat the Old Fool.

Stauffer's votes could have gone to Penzone and the MCSO shurf would actually have something to worry about.

Then again, a recall of the MCSO shurf should be in order as soon as he fucks up again.

danzigsdaddy topcommenter

@Einstein @MaskedMagician1967 true, my bad. but we penzone supporters can not assume if stauffer was not in there that we would have gotten his votes

Einstein

@MaskedMagician1967 @danzigsdaddy It is quite possible that some voters are true independents (not wolves in sheep's clothing) and voted for Stauffer because they do not believe in Arpaio or Penzone. Some people choose to not vote for donkeys or elephants or any other animals that have been dirty business as usual for far too long.

jonnyquest topcommenter

2 Like

@MaskedMagician1967 @danzigsdaddy The thing that would put wind in the sails of a recall is a ruling against Arpaio in Melendres. A DOJ victory would follow. THEN a recall would get legs. If a respected Republican law enforcement type would stand up, Arpaio's days would be numbered. Tim Dorn of Gilbert, are you listening?

danzigsdaddy topcommenter

@MaskedMagician1967 as the votes are being finally counted though, Joe's lead is becoming less of a sweep and more of a squeek though. (sadly, i dont think the count will end in Penzones favor though)