Denise Garza won the recount in her Brownsville school board race with Victor Caballero by one vote more than in the canvass after Election Day, and Caballero lost by two votes less, official results from the recount show.
Garza received 16,512 votes in the hand tally conducted in the jury room of the Cameron County Courthouse from Nov. 29-Dec.1 and Caballero received 12,114. In the canvass after the Nov. 8 election, Garza received 16,511 votes to 12,112 for Caballero.
In either case, Garza won by a vote or two less than 4,440 votes: 4,398 in the hand tally and 4,399 in the Election Day canvass.
The Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees delayed swearing in Garza to the term for which she was elected until after the recount. Details of when to hold the special meeting for Garza’s swearing in were being worked out.
“Compared to the Canvass Ms. Garza gained one (1) vote and Mr. Caballero gained two (2) votes. While the results did not change the outcome of the election, the number of votes each candidate received did change. The district will have to re-canvass the race and update the canvass report for the November 8, 2022 BISD Board of Trustee, Place 2 General Election, Remi Garza, the Cameron County Elections Administrator, said in an email confirming the results.
Caballero said he will pay for the cost of the recount, which Garza estimated could approach $40,000.
That is because of the number of hours worked and because each member of the recount team had to be paid $15 per hour, the same as the presiding judge at each precinct during the election. Additionally, the person requesting the recount, Caballero, had to pay meal costs during the recount.
Thursday night, with about 7,000 ballots still to be counted, Caballero said he had been impressed with the professionalism of the elections office staff and was sure there had been no anomalies.
“Our theories of how people have voted are not the theories that we expected,” he said.
Denise Garza said Caballero conceded the election about 9 p.m. when it became evident the outcome was not going to change.
“He wished me the best of luck with my term,” she said Friday morning.
Caballero ran as a team with Carlos Elizondo and Frank Ortiz, who were sworn in to office Nov 10. Caballero filed for the recount after Ortiz won by about the same margin as he lost to Garza.
Thursday night he said the recount had shown him the “best of democracy in action,” but said he would now step back from public life to pursue his second career in investment management and to devote more time to his family.
Garza also said she had been impressed with the professionalism shown by the elections office staff and poll workers during the recount.
She said it was a lesson in how clean and transparent elections really are.
About 6 p.m. Thursday the poll workers voted unanimously to complete the Garza-Caballero recount then, so as not to have to return on Friday to finish up.
Remi Garza said his office will be conducting a recount of the Adam Hinojosa-Morgan LaMantia Senate District 27 race starting Tuesday.
Hinojosa lost the election by 659 votes, with Cameron, Hidalgo and Starr counties accounting for the difference in the redrawn district formerly represented by state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville.
