Victor Marx has held a narrow, roughly 2,000-vote lead over state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer for several days, but the race is still too close to call as the window for voters to fix deficient ballots remains open.
Marx, a religious nonprofit leader, has led Kirkmeyer for nearly a week after overtaking the veteran lawmaker the day after polls closed in the June 30 primary. With more than 518,000 ballots counted, Marx led Kirkmeyer 39.8% to 39.5%, according to the Associated Press. The AP projected that 98% of votes had been counted.
State Rep. Scott Bottoms, a conservative pastor, was in third place, with 20.7% of the vote.
As it stood Tuesday afternoon, the 1,950-vote margin between Marx and Kirkmeyer was still outside the threshold required to trigger an automatic recount. Though Marx has held a steady lead over Kirkmeyer for several days, the AP has not yet called the race and likely won’t until the end of the week.
That’s because voters have until Wednesday evening to cure any deficient ballots, meaning those with signature or voter verification issues. Voters whose ballots have been set aside are notified by their county election officials, and campaigns often work to cure ballots in close races.
