With 8 percent of Missouri's precincts still not reported as of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, incumbent State Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat, was leading in her bid for election to a full four-year term in Tuesday's general election.
Update
.In unofficial, statewide totals reported by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's office, Galloway had received 1,053,251 votes to Republican Saundra McDowell's 971,302 votes - with 2,990 of the state's 3,256 precincts reporting.
Libertarian Sean O'Toole had received 46,671 votes. Green Party candidate Don Fitz had won 16,875 votes. Constitution Party's Jacob Luetkemeyer had garnered 42,597 votes.
An hour earlier, Galloway had been behind McDowell in the vote totals.
Galloway has served as auditor since April 2015, when then-Gov. Jay Nixon appointed her to fill the vacancy left when Republican Tom Schweich committed suicide in late-February 2015 - just six weeks after he'd been sworn-in for his second four-year term.
Nixon also had named his former chief of staff, John Watson, to serve as auditor immediately after Schweich's death, until the governor could make a permanent appointment.
Galloway campaigned on a pledge to continue being an independent watchdog in the auditor's office.
"I want to restore the public's trust in Missouri government," she told the News Tribune, "and the best way to do that is by rooting out corruption, waste and mismanagement at all levels of our government."
She pointed to her successes since becoming state auditor.
"Both my public and private sector work experience has paid off, and in just three years as your state auditor, I have found over $300 million in government fraud, waste and mismanagement," she said.
"My audits have also led to over 35 criminal counts filed against public officials for corruption and mismanagement of taxpayer funds."
Galloway is a 2004 graduate of what now is known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, where she earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and economics.
In 2008, she earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
She also is a certified public accountant and a certified fraud examiner.
McDowell is an attorney and argued some of Missouri's best state auditors have been attorneys rather than CPAs - including "Kit Bond, John Ashcroft and Tom Schweich (who) were all wonderful state auditors, and have done a lot for the state of Missouri."
She cited her work for the attorney general and secretary of state's offices.
"I was an assistant attorney general prosecuting Medicaid fraud, working with and leading auditors, and investigators to uncover fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid program," she said. "I have been instrumental in bringing back over $10 million of taxpayer and individual investment funds to Missourians."
McDowell graduated in 2007 from Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, with a bachelor's degree in philosophy (and a minor in politics), then earned her law degree in 2010 from Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Before earning her degrees, McDowell served in the U.S. Air Force from 1999-2007, receiving what she called extensive medical service training, emergency medical training, medical mobility training and intensive care training.
After earning her law degree, she worked in the Missouri Attorney General's Office under Chris Koster, and moved to the secretary of state's securities division in 2017, leaving that office when she launched her bid for state auditor.