Breckenridge Texan

A second county’s recount results confirm Rep. Glenn Rogers’ local win in the Republican Party Primary Runoff for Texas House District 60. One more county’s election results remain to be recounted before the overall results are finalized.

Parker County’s recount results are the same as the numbers that were reported the day after the May 24 Primary Runoff. Last week, Stephens County’s recount results matched their Election Night numbers, as well. The Palo Pinto County recount will take place next week.

On the runoff election night, the original vote totals for all of District 60, which includes Stephens, Parker and Palo Pinto counties, showed Rogers, the incumbent, had won by 752 votes. However, the vote count in Parker County increased by about 2,000 votes on the Wednesday after Election Day, when it was discovered that, as a result of a human error, some votes were not tabulated on election night in that county. When the additional votes were tabulated in Parker County, Rogers’ lead dropped to a little more than 300 votes, prompting his challenger, Mike Olcott, to request a recount.

A recount requires that the ballots in all three counties be recounted. The Stephens County recount took place on June 8 and exactly matched the results from the electronic tabulation that were posted on Election Night, confirming that, locally, Rogers received 731 votes and Olcott received 284 for a difference of 447 votes.

The Parker County recount took place on June 9 and 10, and the Palo Pinto recount is scheduled for June 21.

Rogers said in a news release that he “cannot be prouder of the integrity and work ethic of Parker County GOP Chair, Scott Utley, and Elections Administrator, Cricket Miller, throughout the weeks long process of sorting, organizing, and tallying over 15,000 ballots. Moreover, the Team Rogers volunteers, staff, and Parker County employees who donated their time and energy for days on end are greatly appreciated.”

According to Sam Taylor, Assistant Secretary of State for Communications, the purpose of the recount is to determine if the candidate who was originally declared the winner is, in fact, the winner. Once the votes are recounted, they will then be canvassed and recertified through the canvassing process. Then, they become the final official number of votes for that election, Taylor said.

“For the second time, the recount process has validated the election night results, and showcased that Texas’ elections are fair, free, and secure,” Rogers said. “It is frustrating that there continues to be more wasted time and money thrown at a process to ultimately determine what the voters already knew.”

The cost of the recount depends on the outcome of the recount, Taylor explained earlier this month. ”So the person requesting the recount has to put down a deposit. If the results change, i.e. the candidate who lost and requested a recount ends up being the winner, then that candidate gets their entire deposit back. And they’re declared the winner,” he said.

However, Taylor said, if the outcome of the election is not changed by the recount, then the person who requested the recount and put up the deposit loses the deposit and has to pay for any additional costs that were incurred to hold the recount.

“Everything in this recount has been done with the transparency, honesty, and attention to detail that the voters deserve,” Rogers stated. “Even in the face of obstructionists and unnecessary distractions, I look forward to a speedy resolution by next week so my office can focus full time on serving the people of Parker, Palo Pinto, and Stephens Counties that we were elected to represent.”

The May 24 runoff was held after neither Rogers or Olcott, received more than 50 percent of the vote in the March 1 primary.