Arizona's CD-3 race heads to a recount after just 42 votes separates candidates

Arizona's CD-3 race heads to a recount: What this means

PHOENIX - The race for the Democratic nomination in Arizona's Congressional District 3 came down to the wire, and now it's going to a recount.

After tens of thousands of votes cast, the final tally is separated by just 42 votes with Yassamin Ansari leading Raquel Terán.

CD-3 stretches from downtown Phoenix, to Laveen, Maryvale and Glendale.

Some might be wondering, is it actually possible that a recount could change the result?

Well, the voter turnout for this election was low. FOX 10's Steve Nielsen headed out to a Phoenix neighborhood and was hard-pressed to find any voters.

When Jeff Springer was asked if he voted in the primary, he simply said, "I did not. No."

Samuel Mata also didn't vote, and said, "I was just busy and consumed with work and totally forgot about it."

Just a few dozen votes could have changed things in the race for District 3. A 42 vote difference.

Arizona's CD-3 race heads to a recount

"It's rare for races to be this razor-thin. The margin is a 10th of 1%," Deb Otis, FairVote Director of Research and Policy, said.

Otis has studied recounts of hundreds of statewide races across the nation. It's rare for a recount to change the results, but 42 votes is close.

"42 votes is right on the edge of the threshold where overturning the outcome is plausible with a recount," Otis explained.

The current leader after the count, Ansari, said, "While we are confident this lead will hold, it is important to let the vote-counting process fully play out through an automatic recount, and we welcome the process ahead."

Her opponent, Terán, said, "We are just 42 votes behind, and we're entering into a recount process. Especially in Arizona, we know that democracy is worth waiting for, and it is critical that every vote is counted."

Otis said there are a lot of reasons some ballots might be counted incorrectly at first.

"Say if it looks like a machine read that the voter filled in two bubbles. What really happened is the voter filled in the wrong bubble, drew a big X through it, then filled in the bubble they meant to, drew an arrow and wrote ‘this one’ pointing to the bubble they really meant," Otis said, giving an example.

As for voters, Springer says primary elections aren't necessarily a priority for him.

"I always vote in the main election, but not in the primaries that often," he said.

Despite Mata forgetting to vote, he says, "It does matter. It does matter. You have to vote and primaries are important."

Before the recount can start, the vote has to be canvassed. That's scheduled to happen on Monday, Aug. 12.