Russell Pearce, one of the most influential state politicians in the nation and a powerful voice on illegal immigration, was on the verge of losing his Senate seat in Tuesday's unprecedented recall election.

Pearce appeared resigned to defeat, saying "if being recalled is the price for keeping one's promises, so be it."

See Pearce's speech | See Lewis' speech

If the vote totals hold, Pearce becomes the first sitting Senate president in the nation and the first Arizona legislator ever to lose a recall election. He would be required to step down immediately once the results become official.

The results were not official late Tuesday, and elections officials said they still needed to count thousands of early and provisional ballots, meaning final results might not be known for more than a week.

Nevertheless, supporters of Jerry Lewis were ebullient Tuesday night. More than 300 people crowded into the home of Lewis backer John Wright and cheered loudly vote totals were posted on the Maricopa County elections website.

"We pulled off a historic upset," Lewis said. Saying his campaign took the high ground, Lewis told the crowd that his victory brings "a fresh voice to Mesa and a civil tone to politics."

"We now have an opportunity to heal the divide in Mesa," he added.

At the Pearce camp, the mood was somber.

"It doesn't look like the numbers are going my direction on this, and I'm OK with that," Pearce said. "I'm grateful for the friends, families and patriots who have stood by me."

Earlier in the evening, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a longtime Pearce ally, said he did not believe the recall would spell the end of Pearce's political career. "He's a fighter," Arpaio said. "If he does lose, there's another election next year."

10,000 signatures

Pearce critics gathered more than 10,000 signatures to force the recall, which was seen as a referendum on whether Pearce's get-tough posture on immigration issues still resonated with the 71,000 registered voters in west Mesa's District 18.

The largely conservative blue-collar district includes downtown Mesa and Arizona's first Mormon temple, but it also has Mesa's poorest neighborhoods and lowest performing schools.

Many residents, both White and Latino, have chafed for years over the effects of immigration and the federal government's inability to deal with it, and many early on applauded Pearce's sponsorship of the controversial Senate Bill 1070 immigration legislation.

Critics, however, began to express disillusionment with Pearce's increasing hard-line stance, and some supporters began to feel conflicted when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began advocating a more humane and moderate approach to the immigration issue.

In Lewis, they would get a man who like Pearce is White, conservative and Mormon, but who repeatedly contrasted himself to Pearce by saying his vision of leadership is to bring all sides together to find solutions, rather than ruling by fiat.

On virtually every other issue, Pearce and Lewis agreed, and in their only debate last month, they echoed each other's positions and used each other's examples to illustrate their points.

During his campaign, Lewis, a charter school executive and former accountant, pledged to take the high road, a pledge he largely managed to keep despite what he called campaign dirty tricks employed by Pearce backers.

A no-gifts pledge

Lewis also pledged not to accept any gifts or special favors, particularly from lobbyists, a reference to the fact that critics skewered Pearce for accepting nearly $40,000 in free trips, hotel stays, meals and college football game tickets from the Fiesta Bowl.

Bruce Merrill, a veteran political scientist and pollster and professor emeritus at Arizona State University, said that most people thought the race would be very close, but Lewis "seemed to be getting a little bit more momentum" at the end.

"If Lewis holds on and wins this thing . . . it sends a message not only to people in Arizona but outside Arizona that everybody is not a very strident right-wing anti illegal immigration person," he said Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, Glen and Louise Arky walked out of a central Mesa polling place and discussed their support of Pearce.

"I saw no reason not to vote for him," said Glen Arky, 75, a semi-retired aircraft mechanic.

Arky said his support of Pearce never wavered after they read news accounts of Pearce's connections to the Fiesta Bowl scandal.

However Evan Balmer, 33, countered that he thought Lewis would work to improve Arizona's schools.

"Immigration is part of the reason I voted the way I did, but education is the bigger thing for me," said the part-time customer service representative for Lowe's and graduate student at Arizona State University.

Lewis ran his campaign on a shoestring compared to Pearce and enlisted a grass-roots door-to-door effort to meet voters one-on-one.

Pearce, meanwhile, often boasted that he had never lost an election and had some of the biggest names in Arizona politics, including Arpaio and Gov. Jan Brewer, working on his behalf. He raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars and outspent Lewis by a 3-1 margin.

The race has generated controversy from the start.

Even before the recall was official, Pearce's supporters erected signs attacking the recall, then were forced to take them down after city and state officials ruled that they were placed illegally.

Pearce supporters tried to paint Lewis as an outsider and a tool of liberal special interests, even though Lewis raised most of his money from Mesa, while the vast majority of Pearce's war chest came from outside the district.

They also accused Lewis of stealing donated items from homeless children at one of the charters schools for which Lewis works. The charge not only failed to stick, but it enraged former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams of Mesa. Adams, who criticized the attack last week.

Bizarre tactic

One of the most bizarre tactics, however, involved a Mexican immigrant named Olivia Cortes, whom Pearce supporters admitted helping to get on the ballot in the hopes of draining votes away from Lewis.

Pearce denied any knowledge of how Cortes came to be a candidate, but his supporters, including two of his nieces, carried nominating petitions for Cortes, and several paid petition circulators told signers they were trying to get Cortes on the ballot to benefit Pearce.

Cortes' name appeared on the ballot even though she officially pulled out of the race. Cortes received roughly 250 votes out of more than 20,000 cast.

Sen. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, said the result did not surprise him.

"I feel bad for Russell from the standpoint that it was the worst-run campaign I've ever seen," Crandall said. "I've never seen more miscues in an election than what happened to him."

Sen. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, will be one of several candidates to replace Pearce as Senate president.

"I am profoundly disappointed that he (Pearce) didn't win," he said.

Biggs said the Cortes election flap turned many voters against Pearce and could have cost him 4-5 points in the election. "That was a startling miscalculation," he said.

The county expects to verify the election results by Nov. 16, and the Secretary of State's Office must then certify the results, along with the governor and attorney general.

Matt Roberts, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Bennett, said the official canvass would likely take place Nov. 21.

Gary Nelson, Mary K. Reinhart and Christina Leonard contributed to this article.