Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez reports that ballots in the special election between Republican Jesse Kelly and Democrat Ron Barber are returning at a record pace.

Rodriguez says that her office mailed out 185,000 early ballots in the race beginning on Thursday, May 17. By today, more than 48,782 ballots had come back in.

That amounts to more than 26 percent, or one in four early voters in Pima County, having cast their vote in the race already. Typically, 10 to 15 percent of voters send in ballots within the first week, according to Rodriguez.

Not too many of the ballots have been sorted by political party, but we'll bring you numbers as they become available.

Pima County is one of four counties inside of Congressional District 8. About 23,660 ballots were requested in Cochise County and about 5,000 ballots were requested in Pinal County, according to a breakdown that was passed along to us.

Looks like Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has realized that his quest for Obama's birth certificate was not going well for him, according to Nick Martin of Talking Points Memo:

After days of ridicule for launching a conspiracy theory-fueled investigation into Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett on Tuesday backed off his threat to keep the president off the ballot in November and apologized to his state.

“If I embarrassed the state, I apologize but that certainly wasn’t my intent,” Bennett said in an interview with Phoenix radio station KTAR. “He’ll be on the ballot as long as he fills out the same paperwork and does the same things that everybody else has.”

Bennett said he still intends to keep asking Hawaii for verification that Obama’s birth certificate is authentic. But he said he only plans to use Hawaii’s answer as a way to satisfy demands from constituents who remain unconvinced Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States and so therefore eligible to be president.

He also said he talked to Hawaii’s attorney general on Monday night and clarified what he is looking to have verified. He said he “reworded” his request and expects to receive a response from Hawaii officials “in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

After all this, we're starting to wonder if there's something to this question of whether Mitt Romney is really a unicorn.

At a press conference tomorrow, folks from Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival (Oct. 12-14) will share some outstanding news — the nonprofit that celebrates everyone and everything in our Arizona-Sonora region received two National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works Grants totaling $65,000.

U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva will announce the grants tomorrow, 11:30 a.m. at the Pioneer Building Lobby & Tucson Pima Arts Council Conference Room, 100 N. Stone Ave. Grijalva will be joined by Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, TPAC executive director Roberto Bedoya, and Tucson Meet Yourself program director and folklorist Maribel Alvarez. Ethnic food samples will be served from festival regulars Wat Buddhammetta Thai Temple, and other festival ethnic food vendors.

At some point, TLC will either document and/or aid the destruction of our culture and Birth Moms, which documented the lives of three women living in some sort of pre-adoption compound in Utah, including the shoplifting, smoking, drinking star Kandice, is only a sign of our forthcoming doom.

Citizens United is the latest Super PAC to wade into the June 12 special election between Democrat Ron Barber and Republican Jesse Kelly to complete Gabby Giffords’ term.

Citizens United is spending $100,000 to run TV ads targeting Barber over cuts to Medicare Advantage in the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, according to Politico.

The ad, which features an image of a sad elderly patient in a hospital bed, focuses on the same claims that we’ve already discussed in recent weeks about the “$500 billion in cuts” to Medicare under the Affordable Care Act.

Those claims have been repeatedly rated as “false” by PolitiFact and “misleading” by FactCheck.org, but they been recycled repeatedly by GOP political operatives since the 2010 midterm elections.

The Citizens United ad focuses attention on $130 billion in planned reductions in future expenses for the Medicare Advantage program, which uses private insurers to provide coverage to seniors, rather than the traditional Medicare program that the government runs.

Public Policy Polling has released a new poll showing that Republican newcomer is closing the gap with Congressman Jeff Flake in the race for the retiring Jon Kyl's U.S. Senate seat.

Meanwhile, Flake continues to hold a 13-point lead over likely Democratic nominee Richard Carmona.

Here's the release from PPP:

Republican Senate primaries not going the way they're expected to has become the new norm over the last two election cycles, and there are indications Arizona could be the next state with some upset potential. PPP's newest poll finds that Wil Cardon has cut 27 points off of Jeff Flake's lead over the last three months. Flake still has a solid advantage of 22 points, 42-20, but it's a far cry from the 49 point lead he had at 56-7 when PPP surveyed the state in February.

Cardon's early advertising appears to be having an impact. His name recognition has nearly doubled from 17% to 35% and the numbers suggest that as he continues to become better known he may pull even closer to Flake- among voters who have an opinion about Cardon, whether it's a positive or negative one, he trails only 45-35.

What's interesting about Cardon's improved competitiveness is that it doesn't seem to be driven by ideology. Flake is actually beating him by a wider margin with voters describing themselves as 'very conservative'- 51-21- than he is overall. The decrease in support may be more an anti-politician thing than a 'he's not conservative enough' one.

The primary may be getting closer but Flake is still clearly the stronger Republican candidate for the general. He leads Richard Carmona 48-35, while Cardon has only a 40-37 advantage on the likely Democratic nominee. Things have changed little for the general since PPP's February poll. At that time Flake had a 46-35 advantage against Carmona and Cardon was up 37-33.

It won't be up in America until midnight, apparently, but if you're a fan of vintage synthesizers or just making noise, you'll probably lose an hour or so of productivity playing with Google's fully functional (and recordable) Moog synth currently available on Google Japan in honor of the late Robert Moog's birthday. I have no musical talent whatsoever, so mostly I just turned knobs and pushed keys, but maybe you can create something actually listenable before the Moog Doodle is no more.

Leon Ware is a somewhat under-appreciated soul artist - he worked on the Maxwell album Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite and essentially created Marvin Gaye's I Want You, among a bunch of other songwriting credits and albums of his own - so it's nice to hear him teaming up with hipster Danish soul act Quadron for a single, "Orchids for the Sun". It's wildly smooth, perfect for the hour or so that it's bearable to be outside these days.

Wendy - #705111 – 6 Years Old – Shepherd Mix – Female

Sweet Wendy needs some stability in her life and a place she can finally call home. This mature senior has a long list of wonderful qualities. She has been around children and other dogs, she is loving and loyal, and she would be forever grateful for the chance to celebrate her Golden Years in the company of friends and family. Wendy is also a tough cancer survivor who pulled through surgery and treatment with flying colors. She’s now healthy and happy. All she needs is her fairytale ending. If you could give Wendy the care and commitment she deserves, please get to know her today at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.

Come meet Wendy! She's currently living at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. The Humane Society is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The phone number is 327-6088.

See Wendy in video form below the cut:

Former Arizonan Nick R. Martin at Talking Points Memo has the chain of emails going back and forth between our nu-birther Secretary of State Ken Bennett and representatives of the state of Hawaii regarding Pres. Obama's birth certificate. Let's just take a moment to celebrate Assistant Attorney General Jill T. Nagamine, who replies by demanding Bennett's qualifications to ask for the information at all.

Also, at one point, Bennett ends an email by typing "Thanx." Sigh.

From: Jill T. Nagamine
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 3:38 PM
To: Bennett, Ken
Subject: RE: Request from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office

Dear Mr. Bennett:

I am in receipt of your email dated May 17, 2012. As I have informed you and Mr. Drake, Hawaii law requires that for verification of a vital record the requestor must satisfy the requirements of section 338-18(g), Hawaii Revised Statutes, which provides:

(g) The department shall not issue a verification in lieu of a certified copy of any such record, or any part thereof, unless it is satisfied that the applicant requesting a verification is:
(1) A person who has a direct and tangible interest in the record but requests a verification in lieu of a certified copy;
(2) A governmental agency or organization who for a legitimate government purpose maintains and needs to update official lists of persons in the ordinary course of the agency’s or organization’s activities;
(3) A governmental, private, social, or educational agency or organization who seeks confirmation of a certified copy of any such record submitted in support of or information provided about a vital event relating to any such record and contained in an official application made in the ordinary course of the agency’s or organization’s activities by an individual seeking employment with, entrance to, or the services or products of the agency or organization;
(4) A private or government attorney who seeks to confirm information about a vital event relating to any such record which was acquired during the course of or for purposes of legal proceedings; or
(5) An individual employed, endorsed, or sponsored by a governmental, private, social, or educational agency or organization who seeks to confirm information about a vital event relating to any such record in preparation of reports or publications by the agency or organization for research or educational purposes.

I asked you for legal authority that establishes your right to obtain verification, and your email of May 17, 2012 provides me with references to Arizona Revised Statutes 16-212, 16-301, 16-502, 16-507, and unnamed others. These statutes seem to deal with election of presidential electors, nomination of candidates for printing on official ballot of general or special election, form and contents of ballot, and presentation of presidential candidates on ballot, but none, as far as I can tell, establish the authority of the Secretary of State to maintain and update official lists of persons in the ordinary course of his activities. I researched other sections of the Arizona Revised Statutes and was unable to find the necessary authority.

If I have missed something, please let me know. My client stands willing to provide you with the verification you seek as soon as you are able to show that you are entitled to it.

Thank you,
Jill T. Nagamine
Deputy Attorney General
State of Hawaii