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ELECTION RESULTS 3 Pima supervisors lead; vote count lags Procedural changes are cited in slow county tally

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At midnight — five hours after the polls had closed — slightly more than 45 percent of the Pima County results of Tuesday's primary election had been counted and reported.

In contrast, almost all of the votes in other Arizona counties, from geographically vast Coconino to highly populated Maricopa, were complete.

It was a late night for election watchers — the last summary report with 408 of the 417 precincts reporting — was at 3:42 a.m. Wednesday .

The poky results, blamed on the county's self-imposed security measures, must be sped up before the Nov. 4 general election. Otherwise, Pima County could be in the ludicrous position of holding up Arizona's declaration its presidential pick.

The county's security precautions were beefed up after litigation and voter complaints of lack of integrity.

"It's a shame it was so slow, but it is a rebuilding process," said Pima County Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Elías, a Democrat. "We're fixing the elections division and building faith in the community" that we can deliver an accurate election count.

County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told us Wednesday that the slowdown was caused by the transportation of ballots and the long inspection time caused by the lack of agreement among the four major parties — Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and Green — on sending results via modem. The intensified security procedures required "unanimous consensus."

Huckelberry explained that the two boxes with memory cards at each of the 380 polling places (some precincts were combined due to anticipated low voter turnout) had to be driven to the central processing center on Mission Road.

Each box had to be inspected to ensure all of the security seals were intact. Each memory card had to be downloaded, he told us.

Tuesday's primary had a paltry 22 percent voter turnout. Such a cumbersome, protracted procedure is not acceptable for the general election, which will attract a significantly greater number of voters because of the marquee race for president.

Huckelberry said the parties were able to come to unanimous consensus and provide the requisite inspections and security for the ballots filed by mail. Those ballots began to be tabulated on Thursday and the results were released at about 8:20 Tuesday evening.

For the general election, Huckelberry said the county plans to ask the parties if it can use regional receiving stations — the results would be sent by modem from 10 to 15 stations to election headquarters.

We appreciate what Huckelberry said was an "abundance of caution" in this election.

And we agree with Elías, who told us that an analytical assessment of the process needed to happen before changes were made. However, some balance between caution and timely reporting of results must be achieved.

Elections Director Brad Nelson told the Star's Erica Meltzer: "We realize it is an agonizing process for candidates, party members, the public and the media."

A final count still was not in hand as we took this page to press. This agonizing process cannot be allowed to recur during the general election, when Arizona Sen. John McCain will be competing for the nation's top office and our state will have national attention.

"It's more important to do it right than to do it quickly," Elías told us. He's right. County officials and the parties immediately must create a plan that ensures the security and integrity of our vote in a timely, efficient manner.