Statement from Pinal County Management:
The purpose of a recount is to ensure accurate vote totals are put forth, as it is reasonable to expect some level of human error in a dynamic, high-stress, deadline-intensive process involving counting hundreds of thousands of ballots. Recounts occur when the difference in reported election outcomes is narrow enough (.5%) that a recount could alter election results. In this case, the State of Arizona had two statewide election results fall within this margin. Thus, a recount occurred and the recount process did what it was supposed to do - it identified a roughly five-hundred-vote undercount in the Pinal County election attributable to human error. This undercount amounts to a .35% variance across a total County-wide vote count of around 146,000 casted ballots. In other words, the recount demonstrated that Pinal County exhibited an election consistency rate of 99.65%. Although not perfect, this consistency rate is within the State’s predetermined .5% statutory margin.
Upon continuing investigation, the Elections Department and County Attorney's Office will report any further findings and recommendations back to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors in a future Public Board of Supervisors Meeting, likely in February. From this, our Board of Supervisors, who wholeheartedly believe in free and fair Elections, will leave no stone unturned to ensure future elections in Pinal County are conducted with the strongest, most failsafe procedures.
Until then, in light of threatened litigation and rumored appeals, Pinal County can make no further comment at this time.
See the below link for an election recount summary
Election Recount Summary (PDF)