Rob O'Dell, Pat Flannery and Craig Harris

The Republic | azcentral.com

Pima County elections officials said nearly 24%2C000 ballots have yet to be counted there.

Cochise County has more than 3%2C200 uncounted ballots.

Maricopa County has 145%2C000 uncounted ballots.

More than 230,000 early and provisional Arizona ballots remained to be counted Thursday, likely affecting at least two undecided contests: the race for the 2nd Congressional District and state superintendent of public instruction.

Republican Martha McSally held a slim lead — 363 votes as of 6:15 p.m. Thursday — over incumbent Democratic Rep. Ron Barber in the race for the southern Arizona district. McSally's lead shrunk by about 900 votes on Thursday.

More than 3,200 ballots remained to be tallied in Cochise County, and about 24,000 in Pima County.

Pima County updated its vote totals at about 6 p.m. Thursday. Cochise County is not expected to update its totals until much later Thursday night or Friday morning.

Republicans hold a registration edge in Cochise County, while Democrats have the edge in Pima County.

In the superintendent race, Republican Diane Douglas was leading Democrat David Garcia by about 22,000 votes. The lead for Douglas shrunk by 5,000 to 6,000 votes on Thursday.

Turnout in Tuesday's election, meanwhile, was relatively low: 37 percent, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's office. That figure will increase to more than 40 percent as early and provisional ballots are counted. In the 2010 mid-term election, Arizona's turnout was 55.7 percent.

In Maricopa County, elections officials reported a 34.3 percent turnout, down significantly from their prediction that 50 percent of the county's registered voters would cast ballots.

The votes that have yet to be counted are early and provisional ballots.

Pima County elections officials said 14,000 early ballots and 10,000 provisional ballots remained to be counted there. The 10,000 provisionals likely won't be counted by the end of the day Friday, said Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson.

Nelson said at least 5,000 outstanding Pima County votes are on ballots that its scanner could not read. The ballots need to be duplicated in order to be counted.

Nelson said a stray mark or stain on the early ballots caused them not to be able to be processed. Pima County officials, joined by Republican and Democratic observers, are determining who the voter intended to vote for, Nelson said. Then a new duplicate ballot will be created that can be run through the scanner and counted.

Cochise County estimated Wednesday it still had to tally 2,081 early ballots dropped off at polling places, and 1,141 provisional ballots. It is unclear how many were tallied Thursday.

Because of technical problems Tuesday night, early ballots were sent to Graham County to be counted, said interim election director Jim Vlahovich.

In Maricopa County, 145,000 votes still must be counted. That includes 105,000 early ballots and 40,000 provisionals.

"We have to verify signatures on every (early) ballot affidavit and make sure it matches the voter-registration cards. It will take some time to verify them," Daniel Ruiz, a Maricopa County elections spokesman, said. Maricopa County hopes to have the process finished by the end of next week, he added.

Ruiz said voters dropped off at least 30,000 more early ballots than the county had projected.

With so many ballots still outstanding, the uncounted votes also could influence the races for attorney general and secretary of state. Though Republicans Mark Brnovich and Michele Reagan respectively held solid leads in those races and were projected to win, their rivals, Democrats Felecia Rotellini and Terry Goddard, continued Wednesday to await a final count before conceding.

A ballot is considered provisional if:

A person goes to a polling site, but does not have his or her name on the voting rolls. The person is allowed to vote, and election officials then check to see if the person registered to vote by the Oct. 6 deadline. If the person met the deadline, the vote is counted. If the person registered after the deadline, the vote is not counted.

A person is registered to vote, but has moved. If the person produces identification to show the new address and votes at the right precinct, the vote is then counted after election officials confirm only one ballot was cast.

A person was mailed an early ballot, but shows up at the polls. A ballot is cast, but it only would count after officials confirm the mail-in ballot was not cast.

A registered voter shows up to vote with no identification. The person can vote a conditional ballot, and then has five business days to present valid identification, such as a driver's license, at the county Recorder's Office or a city Clerk's Office. The ballot then is counted. If the person does not present identification, the vote is not counted.

Cochise County had problems counting ballots for the second straight election. In the August primary, the county sent erroneous results to the Secretary of State. They later had to be pulled down from the state's website and restated after the votes were flown by helicopter to Graham County and double-checked.

On Tuesday, Cochise County noticed a discrepancy of 85 ballots between the election machine's tally and a hand count by staff to double-check the result. Cochise election officials, accompanied by members of the the local Sheriff's Office, took the ballots to Graham County again, Vlahovich said, to have the ballots read by Graham County's machine.

"We quickly determined that our machine was correct," Vlahovich said, adding "We haven't quite figured out what happened" to cause the hand count to be off by 85 votes.

Republic reporter Mary Jo Pitzl contributed to this story.