Armstead-Payton widens lead over Jordan for MUSD Board seat

After another day of ballot counting, Tracie Armstead-Payton has taken a 49-vote lead over Jim Jordan in the race for Maricopa Unified School District Governing Board.

The two were among four Maricopans running for three seats. Incumbents Torri Anderson and AnnaMarie Knorr won re-election, leaving the final contest down to Jordan and Armstead-Payton. The count had been as close as two votes at one point.

Armstead-Payton now has 10,542 votes while Jordan has 10,493, according to the latest numbers from the Pinal County Elections Department.

Jordan is an incumbent who was appointed in April to fill the seat left by Joshua Judd’s resignation. Even after the election, there will be an empty seat on the dais. Patti Coutré resigned in late September with two years left on her term.

The Pinal County Superintendent of Schools will be requesting applications from those interested in serving.

The Elections Department will next update its vote-count report on Monday and expects to have the count of provisional ballots complete by Tuesday.

Other local, county, state and federal race results have remained relatively unchanged, but for the tightening of the Arizona vote for president. That margin is now down to 18,610 in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.