A tight Republican race in Congressional District 5 has delayed the Maricopa County Election’s Department in releasing the final counts for Fountain Hills races in the Aug. 30 primary election.

However, as of press time it appears probable that Art Tolis has edged former Councilman Mike Archambault by just eight votes.

The last numbers released by election officials at 2 a.m. on Sept. 3, had Tolis with 2,797 votes and Archambault with 2,789.

Town Clerk Bev Bender said that she believes that may be the final count, but as of Monday morning this week she did not have confirmation of that.

If those counts are the final numbers there will be no automatic recount. The recount is based on a percentage of the total votes between the two candidates. There were 5,586 votes cast for both candidates. An automatic recount is triggered if the difference is less than one tenth of one percent of the total. In this case that is six votes, so the eight vote margin holds up without a recount.

The results don’t become official until the council canvass of the numbers. That canvass is on the agenda for this Thursday’s regular council session.

The county has reported the write-in vote total for Ginny Dickey, a former councilwoman who challenged Mayor Linda Kavanagh with a write-in campaign.

Dickey received 1,941 votes. That compares with 3,947 for Kavanagh.

“I want to thank each and every resident who wrote my name on their ballot, and everyone who contributed to my campaign. And to all of those who worked so hard on the campaign, I owe everything,” Dickey said in an email statement. “Of those who voted for mayor, I received around 33 percent of the vote. That represents a remarkable number of people who had to not only write in my name but connect the arrow to register their vote.

“This tells me several important things: that there are many residents who wanted a change in leadership; that there is no ‘strong message’ or mandate for her leadership direction or style as the current mayor suggests; that residents pay attention to issues and are not necessarily satisfied with the status quo; that the town has an uncertain financial future and that there are many infrastructure issues that require immediate attention. I believe that voters want town leaders to follow VisionFH and the Strategic Plan--as those documents are clear on direction; the current mayor doesn’t understand that.

“I believe the town is in a precarious financial position, categorically ignored by the current mayor and some of those she ‘endorsed.’

“FinalIy, I stand by my conviction that holding a municipal non-partisan election in a primary election cycle does not present a real picture of FH residents’ wants and needs. Independent voters, more than one third of all FH voters, were disenfranchised because they didn’t get their usual ‘early ballot’; they had to take an extra step to even get a ballot and early ballots were not forwarded.

“It’s too bad our all mail-in ballot process was over-turned by the Legislature—and that the voting public has to jump through hoops to make their voices heard.”

Other races

There were a number of other races of interest to Fountain Hills residents during the Aug. 30 primary election.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Fountain Hills resident, easily won the Republican primary with nearly 189,000 votes, or 66-percent of those cast. Challenger Dan Saban received 26 percent of the ballots.

Arpaio will face Democrat Paul Penzone, who he defeated in 2012, in the November General Election.

U.S. Representative David Schweikert, also a Fountain Hills resident, easily won his primary race against Russ Wittenberg with 63,376 votes compared to 15,535 for Wittenberg.

Schweikert will face Democrat John Williamson in the General Election. He has defeated Williamson in previous elections.

The Republican candidates for State Legislature all ran uncontested in the primary. Senator John Kavanagh will return to office in January.

Representatives Jay Lawrence and Michelle Ugenti-Rita will face Democratic challenger Tammy Caputi in November.

The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 8 General Election is Monday, Oct. 10.