Vote totals for races and ballot questions of interest to Northwest readers

June - Councilwoman Paula Abbott finished ahead of Don Cox by four votes after a recount May 31 that decided the winner of the third of three seats on the Oro Valley Town Council, putting an end to one of the closest elections in the town's history.

Though results are still considered unofficial by the Pima County Elections Department, there are some clear victors in the Aug. 28 primary election. The primary winners now move on to the Nov. 6 General Election.

Capturing all 29 of the Arizona delegates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the state’s presidential primary on Tuesday. Romney defeated Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.

Ann Kirkpatrick is a small-business owner who knows the value of hard work and fiscal responsibility. She is a candidate in Congressional District 1, Arizona’s largest district. This fall, the district’s boundaries will include Oro Valley and Marana.

The five major executive branch offices in Arizona are governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and superintendent of public instruction. The following are overviews of the candidates in the Sept. 10 primary election races. Uncontested major and third party candidates will automatically advance to the general election Nov. 5. The Northwest EXPLORER will provide more information about their campaigns in our October general election coverage.

It took some time Tuesday night, but Gov. Mitt Romney conceded to President Barack Obama, who was elected to a second four-year term.

By order of state statutes, Pinal County voters will be electing a five member Board of Supervisors in 2012, based on population data gathered in the 2010 census.

Republican Pete Hershberger, 53, hopes his loyalty to voters in Dist. 26, comprised largely of the former Dist. 12, which his parents served for so many years, will pay huge dividends against fellow incumbent Carol Somers in the coming election.

Despite a plea for an earlier election date, a Pinal County Superior Court judge ruled March 12 that Sept. 7 is the day set for voters to decide whether to unite the Mammoth-San Manuel and Oracle school districts.

The City of Tucson will have a mayoral race after all, now that write-in candidate Rick Grinnell received enough Republican votes in the Aug. 30 primary election to move on to the general election.

The rancor that has plagued the Continental Ranch Community Association is building to a crescendo as it prepares for an election that will cede control of the massive Marana homeowners association from developers to its residents.

With the high number of provisional and mail-in ballots last week, the state had more than 600,000 votes to count after the Nov. 6 General Election. In Pima County, election crews spent the last week going through nearly 80,000 ballots.

It had an inevitable feel leading up to the game, but also a familiar, uneasy look in the final minutes of another wild finish.

With 98.6 percent of the precincts in Cochise, Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties reporting totals late Tuesday, Democrat Gabrielle Giffords appears to have easily won re-election to in Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District.

October 25, 2006 - Republican Jennifer Burns thinks she can appeal to both Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Nov. 17, 2004 - The dust surrounding the Marana Unified School District governing board refuses to settle, although - albeit unofficially - one of the six write-in candidates has won the race.

Marana and Oro Valley may see several unintended consequences as a result of new statewide consolidated election dates, which is a new law passed by the Arizona Legislature.

September 13, 2006 - The Marana Unified School District will swear in two new governing board members come January.

March 16, 2005 - Only 5 percent of Marana's 12,164 registered voters came out for the March 8 primary election in which four council members - Patti Comerford, Tim Escobedo, Vice Mayor Herb Kai and Carol McGorray - retained their seats in an uncontested election.

A unanimous Marana Town Council has passed the town's "Code of Principle- and Ethics-Centered Governance," an 11-page document that governs the actions of town council members, and appointees who serve on town advisory boards and commissions.

Candidates for mayor and town council in Oro Valley, in keeping to the high ground in their speeches over the past week, may have left some members of their audiences wondering if this was really an Oro Valley campaign they were observing.