Purcell is left reeling
Recorder in fight for political life
Longtime Maricopa County elections chief Helen Purcell was in shock when she got home around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday after being up for nearly 24 hours running Tuesday’s primary. Her own re-election prospects were in question.
After 27 years as county recorder, Purcell was trailing a political neophyte, fellow Republican Aaron Flannery, by less than a percentage point.
She poured herself a glass of red wine, reached in her nearly empty fridge and found a Lunchables. Sitting down with her dogs, she gave herself a pep talk.
“I said to myself, ‘I’ve done what I believe is a very good job over the years, and I’ve got to look at that,’ ” Purcell, 80, told The Arizona Republic. “I don’t want to be defined by a mistake that I made. I very much prefer to be defined by the things I’ve done over the years, the improvements we have made in the Recorder’s Office. I had to have a little talk with myself.”
Purcell was referring to her ill-fated decision in March to slash polling places to save money in the presidential-preference election. In the midst of an unusually fierce presidential contest on both the Demo-
cratic and Republican sides, a crush of voters — including independents who were not allowed to participate but demanded to anyway — overwhelmed the voting centers, causing outrage as long lines and longer waits ensued.
Voters’ memory of the debacle likely contributed to the surprisingly close primary race. Flannery currently leads Purcell by a margin of 350 votes, with roughly 91,000 early and provisional ballots yet to be counted.
Those ballots were processed Wednesday, and the elections department planned to begin counting them today. First results from those uncounted ballots are slated to be released at 5 p.m. today, though counting could continue for days.
The recorder’s race is not the only one hanging by a thread: Glendale races for mayor and city council also are too close to call. On Wednesday, election officials tracked down voting results that were left overnight at a Glendale precinct. A poll worker had forgotten to turn in an electronic device that stores the tabulated results of a counting machine. Officials said the device was left in a locked room and did not appear to have been tampered with.
Reflecting on her own race Wednesday, Purcell said she didn’t want to spend too much time second-guessing the role previous mistakes by her office played in the deadlock.
“I certainly think it was one of the factors. And it was a big mistake on my part, and I understand that and apologize for that,” Purcell said. But after nearly three decades, “I’m very proud of what I’ve done.”
Purcell ticked off advancements she brought to the office, such as evolving county elections from paper-ballot hand counts, to a punch-card system, to the electronic scanning machines used today. Equipment that was once stored in a “leaky old warehouse” now sits in modern downtown Phoenix headquarters. Millions of property and business records now are available for free online, including the first deed ever recorded in Maricopa County in 1871.
Alberto Gutier, a longtime Republican operative and friend of Purcell’s, said he hoped the results would swing her way.
“What drives me crazy is that this lady, after serving so many years so well — one event which she apologized for ...” he said, his voice trailing off.
A few miles from Purcell’s home, the 38-year-old Flannery had been celebrating primary night at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel with his wife, eight kids and supporters.
When Flannery, a Glendale human-resources consultant, squeaked into the lead with the last vote tally of the night, the room erupted.
“We had security called on us,” Flannery chuckled.
He marveled at the neck-and-neck results.
“It’s in the recount territory if it maintains this way,” Flannery said. “I’m still on pins and needles and biting all my fingernails.”
If the margin narrows to 10 votes, it could set up what appears to be an unprecedented scenario: An elections official presiding over a recount of her own election. Purcell has promised that she would maintain a distance and let her staffers handle it, with supervision from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
Flannery said he ran because he values voting and assumed Purcell would retire after a mistake in 2014, when a Peoria candidate was twice left off the ballot. The elections office also was criticized for Spanish-language ballot errors.
Flannery was already running when the March debacle occurred. He spent nearly 13 hours at the polls gathering petition signatures from voters.
But Flannery said he tried to run a race “with dignity,” respecting Purcell’s record of service and offering voters a choice: “Did they want the experience of 27 years or did they want fresh new ideas?”
Even as their fates hinged on a razorthin margin, the candidates remained unfailingly polite Wednesday — as they did throughout the campaign.
“He was always pleasant to me,” Purcell said. “We never had an issue with one another.”