Humdrum recorder's race turns into barn burner as Helen Purcell faces possible defeat

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 Democratic 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 Thursday. First results from those uncounted ballots are slated to be released at 5 p.m. Thursday, though counting could continue for days.

The recorder's race is not the only one hanging by a thread: Glendale races for mayor and 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 forgot to turn in to election officials at the end of the night 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 successes

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, then to electronic scanning machines used today. Equipment that was once stored in a "leaky old warehouse" now sits in a 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.

Those memories flooded over Purcell early Wednesday morning: "I thought, 'Oh how much different is that than what we see now.' ... Those are things I've accomplished, and I've got to look at that."

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. "There's a few of us who talked in the last few months, and we basically said, 'God, how can we raise money for Helen?' She is so much into correcting what happened that I don't think she had a big effort in raising money or full-fledged campaigning like most of these other elected officials do."

Opponent on 'pins and needles'

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 (including foster children) and supporters.

When the 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. "They said, 'You gotta keep it down.' "

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 to maintain a distance and let her staffers handle it, with supervision from the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.

David Cantelme, a Phoenix Republican election attorney who supported Flannery, expected a larger lead. He attributed the toss-up to "residual goodwill" Purcell has banked over the years.

"She's a fine woman ... but nobody owns an office," Cantelme said. "He (Flannery) put a lot of shoe leather into it."

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 happened. He spent nearly 13 hours at the polls gathering petition signatures from frustrated 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 razor-thin 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."

Purcell's experience in some ways may have hurt her. Her eighth election is the first time she has faced a competitive challenge. High name recognition and bipartisan support had carried her through in the past.

Purcell spent roughly $21,000, five times as much as Flannery, and attended as many events as she could, she said. But Purcell speculated she might have needed to do more.

Campaigning was a lower priority than attending to her official demands of planning four major elections in one year.

"I love my job. I think it's very important," Purcell said, "so this has got to be my concentration."