Can ballot counts vary among races in the same election?

The same election can produce different ballot totals for different races, because not all seats represent the same geographic area and not all voters mark a preference in every race.

The claim shows election results for Democratic primary candidates in Arizona’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts. These districts vary in both size and population: The 1st Congressional District spans the northeastern portion of Maricopa County, while the 3rd Congressional District covers most of downtown and southwest Phoenix.

Races involving the same geographic boundaries may also result in different ballot counts if some voters choose to leave one or more races blank, commonly referred to as “undervoting.” In an instance of “overvoting,” in which a voter selects more than the appropriate number of candidates in a given race, no vote in that race will be counted. In both cases, all correctly marked races will be counted as usual.