BISD RECOUNT: GARZA WINS, NO CHANGE IN PLACE 2 RACE

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

The hand recount in Victor Caballero’s BISD Board of Trustees race with Denise Garza likely was completed late Thursday after Cameron County elections personnel finished sorting the ballots by precinct for tabulating, said elections administrator Remi Garza. 

And despite some slight adjustments (19 votes), incumbent Garza prevailed by 4,398 votes over Caballero. 

Caballero, formerly a BISD Garden Park Elementary principal, was contesting his loss to Garza, the Position 2 incumbent. Caballero told the local daily that he would respect the totals if the recount didn't go his way.

“My army of supporters didn’t feel that the results had the clarity that we were out there campaigning on, but we’re going to have some answers here very soon,” Caballero said.

Garza received 16,495 votes to 12,106 for Caballero in the November 8 election, a 4,389 difference. For Position 4, Frank Ortiz received 16,589 votes to 12,062 for Prisci Roca Tipton, the incumbent. For Position 1, Carlos Elizondo received 13,667 votes to 8,379 for incumbent Drue Brown and 6,828 for Philip T. Cowen.

Caballero, Elizondo and Ortiz ran as a team, yet Ortiz’s margin of victory was roughly equal to Caballero’s margin of loss, leading the candidate and his supporters to question the outcome.

Caballero filed for a recount and paid the $2,100 deposit. Caballero earlier said his supporters had raised about $17,000 of the $25,000 to $30,000 the recount will cost and that he would put up the rest.

“I do have faith that on Election Day everything was the way it’s supposed to be,” said incumbent  Garza.

On Thursday, election workers were sorting through the 19,000 ballots that were cast during early voting to make sure all precincts are identified. By mid-afternoon, the workers were recounting election-day totals, Remi Garza said.

“It’s going to be a lengthy process with the 30,000 that were cast overall in that election, but we want to be as thorough and sure of our count as we can be,” he said.

Garza said his office recounted a La Feria ISD race the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and it came out exactly as it did on Election Day.

“We’re confident that the numbers that were reported on election night are going to be repeated, if not exactly, there may be a one- or two-vote difference … but given the spread in this election we’re expecting the winner to be the winner and second place, second place,” he said.