By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A recount of some of the ballots cast in the district clerk election has yielded no changes in the results.
The limited recount, held Wednesday, Dec. 14, still showed the incumbent, Democrat Jo Ann Cervantes, had retained the office of district clerk, and the challenger, Republican Fabby Aguilera, had lost the race.
Aguilera, contacted by phone after the recount, said she had no comment regarding the recount or the unchanged outcome.
As per the Texas Election Code, the “presiding officer of the final canvassing authority” oversees recounts in county election races. In Val Verde County, the “final canvassing authority” is Val Verde County Commissioners Court, and its presiding officer is County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr.
Owens spoke to the 830 Times about the recount in an interview the day after it was conducted.
“We canvassed the votes on the 22nd of November, and the process is, if you want a recount, you have until Nov. 25 at 5 o’clock, to turn in a petition to have a recount. There’s a schedule sent out by the Secretary of State,” Owens said.
Owens said at first there was some confusion as to who would oversee the recount.
“You would think that whoever ran the election would be the one that you would go to for a recount, so there was a little bit of a misconception, and some public comments were made as to why did I assume that responsibility. The reason, at the end of the day, is that it’s in the Election Code,” Owens said.
Owens said Aguilera provided checks totaling $1,900 to County Clerk Generosa “Janie” Ramon in petitioning for the recount, and Owens said the petition and the monetary deposit were honored.
“At that point, the bottom line is, we figured out that I’m it (in charge of the recount), so we began the process, and as the presiding officer (of the canvassing body) I could appoint an individual to help with the recount. . . which was Mr. Fred Hernandez, our former district attorney,” Owens said.
The next hurdle, he said, was figuring out a date for the recount.
Owens said he contacted both Aguilera and Cervantes, whom he informed of the requested recount, and told them both he would be in charge of the recount. He said he also told Aguilera and Cervantes they would each be allowed to have two watchers in the room where the recount would be conducted.
The recount was eventually set for 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec.14. Owens said Aguilera and Cervantes were notified on Monday, Dec. 12.
Owens said he also met with Ramon, Hernandez and County Attorney David Martinez to discuss the extent of the recount.
“I believe that through Ms. Aguilera’s petition she had limited herself, versus a full recount, but we came up with what we believed she was asking for,” Owens said.
In her petition requesting the recount, Aguilera asked for recounting of “ballots processed by the early voting ballot board including all main-in ballots, provisional ballots, limited ballots, rejected ballots, resolved ballots and to include any electronic receipts from voting machines.”
Owens said Hernandez and his counting team looked at a total of 126 ballots.
Owens said the recount took about four hours, and once it was completed, the judge said he telephoned Aguilera to let her know there had been no changes in the results and that she would have part of her deposit for the recount returned to her.
“She’s not real happy with what we did, I will tell you that,” Owens said.
Owens said Aguilera sent him an email saying she wanted “verifying of signatures on paper ballots,” and the judge said that task is performed before the ballots are counted.
“There was a board for that, and as the person in charge of the recount, I don’t have that authority to go in there and look at signatures and say this one is wrong, that one is wrong. All (the recount coordinator) does is count,” Owens said.
“Ms. Aguilera expressed she wasn’t happy with what happened, but we believe we did what she asked for,” Owens added.
At the end of the recount, Owens said, the canvassed results of the district clerk election will stand, with those results showing 4,792 votes for Cervantes and 4,506 votes for Aguilera.
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