A handful of Green Party candidates who ran as write-ins in the primaries will advance to the general election after initially being left off the November ballot due to a “clerical error.”
The first electoral count, signed by Foreign Minister Adrian Fontes, did not indicate that the Green candidates who were not elected in the November elections would advance to the parliamentary elections, despite receiving the most votes. These include US Senate candidate Eduardo Quintana, who defeated two challengers whose names appeared on the primary ballot.
Fontes released a revised vote count on Friday correcting the error, showing that Quintana and seven other Green Party candidates won their elections, including:
- Vincent Beck-Jones, candidate in the 4th Congressional District
- Athena Eastwood, candidate in the 6th Congressional District
- Tre Rook, candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives in the 8th district
- Cody Hannah, candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives in the 13th congressional district
- Scott Menor, candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives in the 14th district
- Mike Cease and Nina Luxenberg, candidates for the Arizona Corporation Commission
The US Secretary of State’s office blamed a “clerical error” in the election administration system for the issue in a statement over the weekend.
“Our Election Management System (EMS) does not distinguish between a ‘new party’ and an ‘existing party,'” Elections Director Lisa Marra said in the statement. “After determining that there was indeed an error, we worked diligently to correct the records for the candidates, voters and the party.”
The issue was a state law that governs how candidates who are not on the ballot advance to the general election.
Under this law, candidates from established parties such as the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties must receive certain minimum numbers of votes to advance to the general election. For example, candidates for the U.S. Senate must receive 1,288 votes, the same number of signatures needed to qualify as a candidate in the primary election.
But candidates from newly recognized parties – the Arizona Green Party was recognized as an official party in Arizona in December – do not have to meet this hurdle; under the law they only have to receive the most votes in the primary election to advance.
Hannah, the state legislature candidate and co-chair of the Arizona Green Party, said the party anticipated problems qualifying for the general election and reached out to the Secretary of State’s office after the initial vote count was released. He said the Secretary of State’s office quickly corrected the problem.
“We were a little surprised that this was an issue in the election administration system, but overall we’re just hoping that in the future there’s a way to incorporate this provision into their system so we don’t get such inaccurate results anymore,” Hannah said.
Hannah said she was well aware of the law and that the exception for new parties was the reason the Greens chose to field candidates who cannot be placed directly on the electoral roll rather than spend their limited resources collecting signatures to allow their candidates to stand in the primaries.
“We’re not a super-funded party. We’re not a really big party … considering where we are now as a party, this made the most strategic sense,” he said, noting that could change in the future if the Greens qualify for permanent representation.
Arizona Green Party candidates will face an uphill battle in November, as their members make up less than 0.1% of the total electorate. But the candidates could play a role in close state races like the U.S. Senate by drawing votes from major party candidates.
A survey commissioned by the conservative Club For Growth showed that Democrat Ruben Gallego was ahead of Republican Kari Lake by 48% to 46%with the Green candidate receiving 3%. However, this poll incorrectly listed Mike Norton as the Green candidate, who had already been listed as the winner of the Green Party’s primary before the Secretary of State released the revised results.
