/ Modified nov 13, 2012 4:41 p.m.

Ballot Counting Continues Across Arizona

324,000+ to go by Friday deadline; some races hang in balance

Arizona counties have until the end of business Friday to complete counting 324,362 outstanding early and provisional ballots from the election one week ago, the Secretary of State's office says.

The uncounted ballots have left several races undecided, including Southern Arizona's Congressional District 2. The latest totals showed Democratic incumbent Ron Barber leading Republican incumbent Martha McSally by a little more than 800 votes out of more than 273,000 counted so far.

In a press release, the secretary's office reminded those who voted "conditional provisional" ballots must go to their county elections offices by Wednesday to show proper identification. If not, their ballots won't be counted.

No statewide information was made available on the breakdown of the number of early ballots and provisional ballots remaining. Early ballots, assuming envelope signatures match voter registration signatures, would be counted, while provisional ballots could be eliminated for a variety of reasons, including lack of ID.

In Pima County where the bulk of the CD 2 votes were cast, the communications office reported that all but 4,000 of the 256,713 early ballots had been processed. The 4,000 were expected to be counted Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Pima County workers still had 27,000 provisional ballots to verify and process.

Besides CD 2, one Southern Arizona contest hanging in the balance is Tucson's Proposition 409, which would allow the city to borrow up to $100 million by issuing bonds for road and street maintenance and repair. The latest tally showed a 70-vote margin in favor of the measure, with more than 131,000 votes counted.

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