El Paso City Council candidate misses deadline for recount, city clerk says

El Paso City Council nominee Richard Wright is asking for an official recount of the District 8 race but the El Paso County Elections Office says the deadline has passed.

According to the El Paso County Elections Office, Wright finished in third with 2,400 votes, which is 15 votes behind Nicholas Vasquez.

The statute on the Texas Secretary of State’s website (*https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/recounts.shtml*) distinguishes between Regular and Expedited recounts.

Regular pertains to the positions that are elected by plurality vote, meaning, the winner does not need to reach more than 50 percent of the vote.

The city council seat does require a majority vote, hence the runoff election that will whittle down a race to the top two vote-getters, one of whom will have more than 50 percent of the vote and will be declared winner. This recount is known as “Expedited.”

This is the text from the statute:
“When a majority vote (NOT plurality) is required AND there were more than two candidates, the deadline is the later of 2:00 p.m. of the third day after election day or 2:00 p.m. of the first day after the date of the local canvass.”

Votes in El Paso County were canvassed on Monday.

The District 8 race will be going into a run-off after incumbent Cissy Lizarraga received 43 percent of the votes. Any race where a candidate doesn’t receive atleast 50 percent of the votes goes into a run-off.

Early voting for run-off elections in El Paso County are November 28 through December 11. Election day is December 15.