Farrell retains seat on council; Prop 100 passing overwhelmingly (updated 11:15 a.m.)

Maricopans have spoken. With a record 10,314 votes cast in Tuesday’s general election, incumbent Edward Farrell will retain his seat on the Maricopa City Council. Farrell, with 2,142 votes, or 21 percent of the vote, led all candidates, according to unofficial results from Pinal County elections department.

The race for other two council seats is harder to call. Alan Marchione is currently second with 1,920 votes. Julia Romero-Gusse made a late push to move in front of incumbent Brent Murphree for the third spot with 1,614 votes. Murphree is now fourth with 1,596 votes. The top three candidates will win seats on the council.

The early returns do not include provisionals or early ballots. Steve Kizer, Pinal County elections department director, said his department was sending the provisionals and mail-in ballots to the county recorder. “It’s hard to know how many ballots are left until they have a look at them,” Kizer said. “I hope to know more by later this afternoon.”

While Marchione has a comfortable 306 vote lead for the second seat, Romero-Gusse, Murphree and Bridger Kimball are separated by only 25 votes. ”It’s definitely too close to call,” Kizer said. Here’s a look at the current voting:

Edward Farrell: 2,142 votes (20.77 percent)
Alan Marchione: 1,920 votes, (18.62 percent)
Julia Romero-Gusse: 1,614 votes (15.62 percent)
Brent Murphree: 1,596 votes (15.47 percent)
Bridger Kimball: 1,589 votes (15.41 percent)
Peg Chapados: 1,415 votes (13.72 percent)
Write-ins: 38 votes (0.37 percent)

Controversial Proposition 100, which would temporarily increase the state’s sales tax rate by one cent on the dollar, is passing overwhelmingly. The Secretary of State’s Office is currently showing the measure with 65 percent of the vote.

Prop 100 would raise the state sales tax rate from 5.6 percent to 6.6 percent, with two-thirds of the funds generated directed toward public education, and the other third to go to health services and public safety.

The measure to move the mayoral term from two years to four is narrowly passing, 2,212 to 2,205.

“Serving a two-year term is difficult because, one year in, you are already getting questions about re-election,” said Mayor Anthony Smith in a recent interview with InMaricopa.

Currently, all council members serve a four-year term and expanding the term of mayor would allow the position to be aligned in the same manner. If the measure does pass, it would not go into effect until after the next mayoral election.