Burkholder, Lawton to challenge election results
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Two of the three Tucson city council candidates who lost in the recent election are challenging the results.
Bill Beard with the Pima County Republican Party said Margaret Burkholder and Kelly Lawton will announce their challenges at 4:30 p.m. Friday during a news conference outside City Hall.
Burkholder and Lawton lost to Democratic incumbents in the general election but would have won had it been "ward-only" voting.
Burkholder lost to Shirley Scott 43,824 votes to 34,661 but would have won 9,143 to 6,533 if only votes from Ward 4 would have been counted.
Lawton lost to Paul Cunningham 45,296 votes to 33,231 but would have won 11,137 to 10,179 if only votes from Ward 2 would have been counted.
On Tuesday, a federal court ruled Tucson's way of holding elections is unconstitutional.
The city's primary elections are ward-only.
Only people who live in a specific ward may vote for that ward's councilperson. However, the general election is citywide.
The mayor and council could vote to appeal the court's decision.
Ultimately, any change in the way the city conducts elections would mean a change to the city charter.
That means voters would have to decide what the change would be.
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