Doña Ana County Elections Supervisor Lynn Ellins said his office opted to spend Thursday recounting ballots in the spaceport tax election because of computer problems on election night.
Those problems meant officials weren’t entirely confident in the results, so they recounted the results three times by hand and once using computers. That work led to the new, unofficial results released today.
The numbers didn’t change much – tax supporters lost 78 votes and opponents lost 47 – but in such a close race, it mattered.
Ellins also noted that, thus far today, elections workers have rejected fewer than 5 percent of provisional ballots. Historically, the percentage rejected has been as high as, roughly, 33 percent.
“We’re rejecting very few,” Ellins said.
He said he hopes to have all provisional ballots counted by Friday afternoon.
For those of you who are interested, I’ve uploaded a breakdown of the unofficial results by precinct. Click here to read the first page, here to read the second page and here to read the third.
I’d also note that the diligence displayed by Ellins and his staff in making sure the numbers are accurate is impressive.