If the unofficial results hold, Anthony Smith will continue to lead Maricopa as mayor. Smith received 1,287 votes, or about 58 percent of the 2,183 votes cast. Challenger Ken Hunt finished second with 636 votes and Leon Potter had 243 votes.
In the council race, none of the eight candidates received the required 50 percent plus one of the vote, which sets up a May 18 run-off election between the top six candidates. Incumbents Edward Farrell and Brent Murphree were the leading vote getters with 1,133 and 794 votes, respectively. They were followed by Alan Marchione, 756, Julia Romero Gusse, 712, Bridger Kimball, 634, and Dallas Paulsen, 585.
In addition to the mayoral and council race, residents voted on whether to continue Maricopa Unified School District’s maintenance and operations budget override measure. Currently, the override measure is failing by a 48 to 52 percent margin.
Steve Kizer, director of Pinal County’s Elections Department, confirmed that the current vote count does not include provisionals or those ballots mailed or dropped off Monday or Tuesday. Kizer expects to have all the ballots counted by Thursday or Friday.
Here are the unofficial results of the primary election:
Mayoral race:
Anthony Smith: 1,287
Ken Hunt: 636
Leon Potter: 243
Total votes: 2,183
City council race:
Edward Farrell: 1,133
Brent Murphree: 794
Alan Marchione: 756
Julia Romero Gusse: 712
Bridger Kimball: 634
Dallas Paulsen: 585
Peg Chapados: 576
Rosalin Sanhadja: 505
Total votes: 5,712
MUSD Maintenance and Operations Budget Override:
No: 1,198
Yes: 1115
Total votes: 2,313
Check back to InMaricopa.com later today for candidate reactions.
