PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Maricopa County says it’s counted about 99 percent of the roughly 740,000 ballots cast in Tuesday’s primary election, with 2,100 ballots left to tabulate and verify as of Saturday night.

In an election, every vote can matter. In the Congressional District 3 Democratic primary, which includes most of west Phoenix, only 67 votes separate Yassamin Ansari and Raquel Terán, with nearly 44,000 ballots counted.

“In Arizona right now, both in the primary and in the general election everything is very close. The parties and the campaigns are organized to try and get out every vote they can. And the reason they’re doing that is because those margins are so tight and because they recognize that every vote counts,” said Arizona Clean Elections Commission Executive Director Tom Collins.

In Arizona, a recount is automatically triggered when the top two candidates in a race are within .5% of each other. At Maricopa County, election officials are prepared if any officially go to a recount.

“We have several that are close in Maricopa County. We’re keeping an eye on those and making sure that we are able to do the full recount should it become necessary,” said Jennifer Liewer with the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.

If a recount happens, Collins says the tabulation equipment is tested, and the ballots are again run through the machines.

“There’s always going to be lawyers involved, but the actual procedures at the county level are very straightforward and rely on the very same processes that were used to count the ballots in the first place,” he explained.

In the meantime, Collins says candidates in close races are still trying to get every last vote for them verified and counted.

“They’ve been out working, reaching out to voters to cure the ballots if they had a signature missing or a signature mismatch, those kinds of things, so that’s what the campaigns have been doing,” he said.

The deadline to issue Letters of Nomination and Certificates of Election and deliver canvasses to the Secretary of State is Aug. 12.

Both candidates sent out statements on Saturday.

“From the very beginning of this campaign, our diverse, progressive team has defied the odds in our fight for a better future. After the last round of vote tabulation, we have maintained our lead in this race. “

“That is a true testament to a dedicated team and the incredible volunteers that knocked over 165,000 doors and made tens of thousands of calls to voters across the district. We took our positive message of progressive results directly to voters and I could not be more proud.”

“We are still hard at work ensuring that every vote is counted. Thank you to the thousands of voters who made their voices heard in this election. Together, we will continue to deliver progressive results. Our work has just begun. ”

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GLENDALE — The Arizona Cardinals on Friday suffered a serious blow defensively with the loss of second-year pass rusher BJ Ojulari to a reported torn ACL.

Consistently earning first-team reps after making a noticeable jump this offseason, all signs pointed to Ojulari commanding a starting role come Week 1.

Arizona Cardinals OLB Zaven Collins touches on his relationship with BJ Ojulari and how tough it was to see his fellow pass rusher go down with a torn ACL on Friday: pic.twitter.com/Vr0RRJW4ku

— Cardinals Corner (@AZCardsCorner) August 3, 2024

Now with that thought firmly out the window in 2024, general manager Monti Ossenfort, head coach Jonathan Gannon and the rest of Arizona’s coaching staff are left to pick up pieces at a position that didn’t see a massive revamp like other spots on the roster.

But as Gannon said on Saturday, “the sun’s up now and we gotta go to work.”

A look at the paths Ossenfort and Co. could take following Ojulari’s season-ending knee injury:

In-house options

The Cardinals did little in adding to the outside linebackers room this offseason. Some of that could have been the free-agent market. Confidence in the guys already on the roster was likely a factor, as well.

The latter thought was made even more apparent with the two-year contract extension pass rusher Zaven Collins inked ahead of Friday’s Red & White Practice.

Ossenfort had said months ago he would like to keep Collins around after deciding against picking up the inside-turned-outside linebacker’s fifth-year option. And while the timing of the extension coincides with Ojulari going down for the year, Ossenfort was true on his word and had been working with Collins’ camp on a new deal well before Friday’s development.

Collins has taken steps forward in the pass-rushing department since working through the switch while also providing a voice in the room for players like Ojulari to lean on, especially when working through coverages.

His role in the defense looks even more solidified now given the extension.

As for who lines up across from him, there’s a clear candidate in Dennis Gardeck, who was already firmly in the discussion before the Ojulari injury.

“He is one of the more complete players I’ve honestly ever been around,” defensive coordinator Nick Rallis said in July. “I think he’s an extremely good pass rusher. He can cover as good as any outside linebacker can cover. And he can win with leverage in the run game.

“He can provide value for us along the line of scrimmage, in space, all of that. If he takes strides in all parts of his game, he’s going to bring that much more value to our defense.”

As for the depth immediately behind Gardeck and Collins, the two names to keep in mind are Victor Dimukeje and Jesse Luketa.

Dimukeje is coming off a career year highlighted by four sacks (tied for second on the team), five tackles for loss and eight QB hits across 16 games played (six starts).

Luketa meanwhile showed off his versatility last year, playing both fullback and outside linebacker in 14 games (one start).

He also turned in one of the better pass rushes during Saturday’s Red & White Practice during 1-on-1 work.

Dimukeje could very well be the first sub in for Collins and Gardeck with Luketa not that far behind.

A dark horse in all of this is 2024 fifth-rounder Xavier Thomas.

Picking up the phone

Simply for depth purposes, Arizona is bound to bring another body in one way or another.

How that happens is anyone’s guess. What we do know is those discussions are already underway.

Ossenfort has a few options to consider.

He can scour what’s left of the free agent market in the hopes of adding depth sooner than later. With training camp nearing its final phase ahead of preseason action, any extra time within Arizona’s system is a plus.

Then again, if players are still looking for a team at this time of the year, it’s likely for good reason, whether it’s centered around pay or performance.

Ossenfort getting on the phone with other GMs around the league to gauge any trade interest is on the table, too.

There’s also the possibility Ossenfort waits for the league’s 53-man roster cutdown day on Aug. 27 before making a decision.

Either way, the options are aplenty.

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Arizona is going to have a different look to their team this year after Jedd Fisch was poached away by previous Pac-12 conference foe Washington this offseason following their impressive 10-win showing.

The good news for the Wildcats is they are in good hands with Brent Brennan taking over.

As they entered camp with their opener now less than a month away, this was a great opportunity to see how his philosophy might be translating to this group of players that has plenty of stars who are returning and some transfers coming in from San Jose State who followed their head coach.

What was interesting about how the staff played out when Brennan came to Arizona was he didn’t bring his offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven with him, instead opting to hire recently fired Syracuse head coach Dino Babers to take over that role.

Babers first got into coaching on the offensive side of the ball as a running backs coach at Eastern Illinois in 1987. He shifted around a couple different schools as wide receivers coach before coming to Arizona in 1995 where he eventually became the offensive coordinator from 1998-2000.

After three stints as a head coach, he is now returning back to the Wildcats under Brennan.

Getting things operational under a new coordinator for everyone involved will present some growing pains, something that was evident in practice on Friday.

It was documented that their offensive line had some major struggles during that session, but even their star quarterback Noah Fifita was missing some easy throws he normally makes.

However, Babers doesn’t seem to be too concerned with what took place because he attributed the issues to their installation of new offensive plays as the reason why things were out of rhythm, per Jason Scheer of 247Sports.

When everyone is on the same page by the time Game 1 rolls around, Scheer notes that this offense should provide opposing defenses with multiple challenges. Although they are keeping much of the same terminology that Fisch had last season, the overall offense will be different.

All in all, issues caused from an install aren’t a cause for concern.

The only thing that could be a problem is if the players aren’t able to pick up on things at a rapid pace.

This would prevent them from hitting the ground running in the opener, but the expectation is that their all-world wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan should be back in the mix which will help them when they take the field.