Lane pursues action to avoid runoff with Manross

A new twist emerged Wednesday in the neck-and-neck Scottsdale mayor's race as vote leader Jim Lane announced he plans to file a legal action that he hopes will help him clinch the seat without a November runoff.

Unofficial election results from Tuesday show Lane leading Mayor Mary Manross by 217 votes.

Scottsdale mayoral race very tight

But now Lane is targeting 849 ballots without a vote for either Lane, Manross or a write-in candidate, saying they should not be included in final tallies.

That 849 "undervote" number is critical because it adds to the total number of ballots cast, which makes it more difficult for the leader to clinch an outright victory. A candidate needs at least 50 percent of the vote, plus one vote, to win outright and avoid a Nov. 4 runoff.

Without the undervote, Lane has 50.1 percent of the vote, early results show. If the undervote is counted, the percentage drops to 48.7 percent.

No new election figures were released Wednesday, meaning Lane still leads with 14,909 votes to Manross' 14,692 votes. Late-arriving early ballots and provisional ballots must still be counted in the race.

Lane said his argument in his planned legal action will be that the undervotes - or those that skipped voting in the mayor's race - should not be counted.

"A lot of people went out and voted just in the primary, and for that to figure into the majority part of the vote when it's not a vote in our race, it doesn't seem to cut it," Lane said.

Manross said the city charter is clear and Lane should live by the rules.

"Let's say Friday when all the votes are in and if I'm 100 or 200 votes ahead, you wouldn't see me threatening a lawsuit to overturn the law and procedure," she said. "That would mean a runoff and I always play by the rules. He's concerned about what November might bring."

Lane's challenge would go against the city's interpretation.

"The city's position right now is that the charter says that it's about all of the ballots cast," Scottsdale City Clerk Carolyn Jagger said. "But we don't have the final election results and we are taking a look at all of these different issues."

Rick Kidder, president of the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, which endorsed Manross, said the city charter is clear on this issue of total ballots cast versus total votes cast.

"If the numbers break down as they have, it's clear a runoff will be necessary," Kidder said.

Lane said he did not know when he might file his legal challenge, but it could be as early as this week.

The campaign - the first city election on a partisan primary date - featured a one-term councilman in Lane taking on Manross, who has spent the past 16 years in elected office and the past eight as mayor. Manross ran a campaign highlighting city positives, while Lane said he was needed to bring more transparency to city government.

The early returns show there were 143 votes for a write-in candidate, with most if not all likely going to official write-in candidate Bill Crawford. The total could include names of people not running for office.

Crawford spent his short campaign blasting Manross, and was even asked to leave the race by Lane supporter Councilman Bob Littlefield for fear of taking away votes from Lane.

But Crawford, who campaigned on horseback at times, doesn't see it that way. He said his attacks on Manross took votes away from her and gave them to Lane.

"I will believe that until the day I die," Crawford said.

CITY COUNCIL RACE

While Scottsdale voters may have ousted an incumbent mayor, they felt differently about the sitting members of the City Council running for re-election. Incumbents Ron McCullagh and Betty Drake were the top vote-getters, followed by Suzanne Klapp, Lisa Borowsky, Nan Nesvig and Tom Giller.

Based on preliminary results, it appears unlikely that any of the eight council candidates will receive more than 50 percent of the vote necessary to clinch a seat.

If that trend holds true, the top six finishers advance to a runoff Nov. 4. In that race, the top three vote-getters will win seats.

The two candidates who have been eliminated from the race are Joel Bramoweth and Oren Davis.