SAFFORD — Most of the local races appear to have been decided in Tuesday’s Primary Election.
Graham County Elections has released preliminary results, showing 6,287 ballots were cast for a 32.2 percent voter turnout.
272 late early and provisional ballots remain to be processed.
At the county level, the only contested race was for Sheriff, which was decided in the Republican primary, as there are no Democrats or independents running. Incumbent PJ Allred won with 79.3 percent of the vote over challenger Mike Bodine.
“Thank you for your support,” Allred wrote on his social media. “We are honored to continue as your Sheriff and Undersheriff for the next four years. We look forward to working together with our community to continue making Graham County a great place to call home; and we are proud to represent every citizen, every time.”
In Safford, incumbent Richard Ortega won the race for mayor over challenger Maria Kouts, with Ortega capturing 57 percent of the vote.
For the three Safford City Council seats, incumbents Brad Hemphill and Dusti Brantner will get another four years to serve. However, the third seat remains up in the air. To qualify for election, a candidate must have 685 votes or more but none of the remaining four — Brenda Chacon, Luke Chavez, Alma Flores and Corina Pino-Reyes — reached that threshold.
Leading at the moment for a chance to win the seat outright in the November General Election runoff are Flores and Chavez, but just 16 votes currently separate Chavez from Pino-Reyes and 17 votes from Chacon, so the late early and provisional ballots will decide who advances to the November runoff.
Those remaining ballots to count should have no impact on the Thatcher Town Council race. Incumbent Mark Vining was the leading vote-getter, edging the recently retired Thatcher Police Chief Shaffen Woods by three votes, 727 to 724. The other two winners include incumbent Mayor Randy Bryce and challenger Bryce Carter.
The late early and provisional ballots should also have no impact on the Pima Town Council race, where all four candidates exceeded the threshold to win outright, so the top three vote-getters will be elected. They are Cade Bryce, incumbent Lucas Hoopes and Georgia Luster.
In Greenlee County, challenger Dale Sloan captured 54 percent of the vote, defeating incumbent Tim Sumner in the Republican primary for Sheriff. Sloan will face Democrat Daniel Medina in the November general election.
In the contested state and federal races, incumbent U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani received 59 percent of the vote to defeat challenger Kathleen Winn in the Republican Primary. Ciscomani will face Democrat Kirsten Engel for the Congressional district that represents all of Greenlee and parts of Graham, Cochise, Pima and Pinal counties.
Kari Lake received 55 percent of the vote to defeat Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the race for U.S. Senator. Lake will face Democrat U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego in November.
