Voter turnout fails to meet expectations

Despite a last-minute surge in voting locally, the Pima County and statewide turnout in last Tuesday’s election, while high, was nowhere near the 80 percent figure predicted by election officials.

Expectations may have been overblown because the number of early voters was so high — 152,091, or 45 percent of the eventual total of 340,041 in Pima County.

The actual turnout was 68.17 percent of the total number of registered voters, 498,777.

Neither the actual number of votes nor the turnout ratio approach the figures of the 2004 General Election, when 369,321 who voted out of a registered total of 448,050 voters, for a turnout rate of 82.4 percent.

A figure of 319,891 votes cast on Tuesday was reported on the Green Valley News and Sahuarita Sun Web sites, but did not include 10 missing precincts and other previously uncounted ballots. Final Pima County election results, including all 417 precincts, are posted at http://www.pima.gov/elections/results.htm, and include local and statewide propositions.

Statewide results are posted at http://www.azsos.gov/election/2008/General/2008_General_results_query.htm.

There was a big last-minute local surge. Some 300 people turned out to vote on Election Day at Sopori School in Amado. At Sahuarita Town Hall, some 200 people voted on the last day of early voting, Saturday Nov. 1, while on Monday, Nov. 3, another 80 were turned away who had hoped to cast early ballots, town officials said.

Newcomer Kris Ham of Sahuarita was elected to the Governing Board of the Sahuarita Unified School Board. She joins incumbents Diana Kellermeyer and Elaine Hall, who were re-elected, and will take office in January, replacing Martin McGee, who is retiring after 12 years on the board.

Ham has been very active with the schools in a variety of capacities, including the Keep Kids First committee, which is nominally independent of the district, but is dominated by insiders. It is expected Ham’s presence on the board will not lead to great change on a generally unified board.

Ham won with 2,723 votes, outpacing Michael Kennedy Jr., who had 2,381; Kathryn Zanin with 2,200 and Nathaniel Irvin, with 1,811.

Board President Kellermeyer led the way with 2,971 and Hall was next with 2,774.

Write-in votes totaled 56.

Local candidates flounder

Local candidates lost in state-wide and county-wide races. Democrat Georgette Valle of Green Valley lost by a wide margin to Republican Jonathan Paton, who is a state Representative in District 30 and now represents Green Valley, in the race for a District 30 state Senate seat. Sahuarita resident Harry Shaw, a Republican, was swamped by incumbent Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.

The closest race run by a local was that of Andrea Dalessandro of Quail Creek, who drew 43,738 votes in running behind Republican winners David Gowan (48,773) and Frank Antenori (47,914) in a race for two state Representative seats in District 30. Dalessandro ran 4,176 votes behind Antenori, but ran much closer in losing than Democrats in 2006 and 2004, who ran behind by about 5,200 and by about 10,000 votes, respectively.

The race for Arizona Corporation Commission, in which Democrats out-polled Republicans in what is a basically no-name contest, raises the question of whether Arizona is still a red state or is now a swing state.

Three Democrats won in the race for three open seats on the Corporation Commission. Cochise County Board Member Paul Newman (880,195), Sandra Kennedy (879,730) and Sam George (787,962) won, with George squeaking by Republican Bob Stump (784,409), and defeating Republicans Barry Wong and Marian McClure of Tucson. McClure is a District 30 state Representative representing Green Valley and was expected to draw support from Pima County voters.

The Commission race was the only statewide race aside from the contest for President, in which favorite son John McCain, a Republican U.S. Senator from Arizona, easily won the state by a 53.6 to 45.2 percent margin over U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill).

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738