Final results released in election for 3 Tempe City Council seats; Arlene Chin secures re-election

PHOENIX — The final results in the race for three seats on the Tempe City Council were released Friday night.

Arlene Chin had already secured enough votes by Wednesday to be re-elected to the Tempe City Council, having surpassed the required majority threshold under the Tempe City Charter and City Code, officials said.

Jennifer Adams, Berdetta Hodge, Bobby Nichols and Brooke St. George also secured advancement on Wednesday to the runoff election on May 19 for the remaining two council seats.

Since fewer than three candidates earned a majority, the top two candidates among the aforementioned four receiving the highest number of votes will be elected to the Tempe City Council.

As of 6 p.m. Friday, the unofficial final results listed what each candidate had received with 24,275 ballots counted (28.26% turnout).

It showed:

• Arlene Chin with 11,821 votes (18.62%)
• Brooke St. George with 10,232 votes (16.12%)
• Berdetta Hodge with 9,419 votes (14.84%)
• Bobby Nichols with 9,308 votes (14.66%)
• Jennifer Adams with 8,923 votes (14.05%)
• Elvis Taska with 7,005 votes (11.03%)
• Joe Forte with 6,781 votes (10.68%)

Adams, Chin and Hodge are the incumbents.

It takes a majority of votes cast to be elected outright. With three seats up for grabs, the majority threshold is calculated by dividing the total of all votes by three, then dividing that result by two and rounding the result to the highest whole number.

The actual majority threshold could not be determined until all votes were counted, but Chin was the only candidate to surpass it based on Wednesday’s results report.

When will Tempe City Council election results be official?

The Maricopa County Elections Department said the final results will become official after the Tempe City Council’s canvass of the vote, which is tentatively scheduled during the regular council meeting on March 26.

The council members who are declared to be elected will take the oath of office during the regular council meeting on July 1.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Senior Editor Kevin Stone and David Veenstra contributed to this report. 

This is an updated version of a story originally published on March 10, 2026. 

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