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Lawyer may cruise to victory in Navajo Co. contest

SHOW LOW — The race for the Navajo County Attorney’s Office may not be much of a race at all, now that one of the two challengers is asking a judge to remove his competitor’s name from the ballot.

The complaint stems from petition signatures that challenger Christian Ackerley, a Democrat, collected to get his name printed on the ballot. He needed at least 478 valid signatures from registered voters in the county to enter the race. Ackerley collected 814.

But the other challenger in the race, Democrat Brad Carlyon, claims otherwise. He is contesting the validity of 571 signatures which, if election officials agree with Carlyon, would ultimately spoil Ackerley’s chances.

Carlyon is currently the deputy attorney for Apache County. He and Ackerley are competing for a seat that was opened after incumbent Navajo County Attorney, Mel Bowers, did not seek re-election.