BROWNVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The Cameron County Elections and Voter Registration Department has begun the process of recounting votes in the race for the Senate District 27 seat in South Texas.
Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza told ValleyCentral on Tuesday that the county has started the recounting process which begins by sorting the ballots by location used during early voting to tabulate by location and precinct.
Garza said the department has set aside five days to complete the process but is prepared to go longer if necessary.
The recount comes at the request of Republican Adam Hinojosa who lost the race for Senate District 27 after finishing 659 votes behind Democrat Morgan LaMantia, according to official results that were released Nov. 28 on the Texas Secretary of State website.
There were 175,415 total votes in the election with Honojos garnering 87,378 to LaMantia’s 88,037.
“In any election with such a small margin of victory, even very small mistakes in the counting of the vote could have enough impact to change the final result,” Hinojosa said in a Nov. 30 statement.
Hinojosa announced he would be requesting a recount in three counties in which there were large numbers of paper or mail-in ballots.
A recent report from the Texas Tribune declared those three counties as Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy.
LaMantia responded to the announcement of the recount stating it is “democracy taking its course.” The Democratic challenger stated she looks forward to the process taking place and is confident her victory will be reaffirmed.