With only a ‘handful” of early ballots left to be counted, Jim Jordan now has a 14-vote lead over Tracie Armstead-Payton in the race for the final seat on Maricopa Unified School District Governing Board.
Pinal County Elections Department announced its final tally for the day and noted it has up to 1,900 provisional ballots to verify tomorrow.
Torri Anderson, a long-time member of the board, was the top vote-getter in all but two precincts, with Board President AnnaMarie Knorr edging her in El Dorado and Maricopa.
More voters in Thunderbird Farms voted for Jordan than for Knorr. Armstead-Payton had her worst showing in that unincorporated area with just 18% of the vote.
She and Jordan have exactly the same number of votes in Santa Rosa in the current count.
Votes from the Ak-Chin Community aligned with the current overall totals, with Anderson first, followed by Knorr, Jordan and then Armstead-Payton. Ak-Chin gave Anderson her highest percentage of votes at 35%.
Armstead-Payton leads Jordan in six of the 12 precincts involved in the MUSD election.
As the current count stands, Jordan has 11,466 votes, and Armstead-Payton has 11,452.
![Local high school football teams prepare for the upcoming season. [Victor Moreno]](https://www.inmaricopa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/MARICOPA-HIGH-SCHOOL-2022-1-218x150.jpg "High school football competitions Friday open to public")
