Official results for D.A. race may be 2 weeks away

Who will be El Paso’s next district attorney?

Current D.A. Jaime Esparza told ABC-7 he is ready for a runoff election.

In order to avoid a runoff, he needs 50 percent of the vote plus 1.

His opponent is Yvonne Rosales.

Esparza is 47 votes short of being able to avoid that runoff with Rosales.

Esparza says he’s proud of his record and dismissed his opponent’s claims that he has not been able to solve El Paso’s DWI problem.

“Good thing the turnout was a lot higher that we expected,” said Lisa Wise, El Paso county elections administrator.

Wise says the higher than usual voter turnout was good for the elections.

The tight race between Esparza and Rosales showed voters are interested in the possibility of a new D.A..

But there are still a few things to cover. Right now the elections office is still waiting to process 300 to 400 provisional ballots.

A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility.

A provisional ballot would be cast when a voter fails to show identification or their name is not on the poll list. The voter can still vote but the elections office has to investigate and prove the voter is eligible.

The elections office has until March 7 to do that.

“I think every time there’s three people in the race it’s hard to avoid a runoff,” said Esparza.

Esparza told ABC-7 he is counting on his 24 years of experience to keep him ahead.

“Since the beginning we have been innovative and we’ve made changes so that we were with the criminal justice system as it moved and to make sure we grew and changed with the community you will continue to see that,” Esparza said.

“I was re-engergized with the results we saw last night,” said opponent Yvonne Rosales.

Rosales also says she’s confident with the support she got and although Esparza has been touting his experience throughout the race Rosales told ABC-7 she’s not new to the game.

“The fact is that I did start out as a assistant district attorney straight out of law school. I worked there for several years and managed all sorts of cases. We were there every week, whether it was a felony or a misdemeanor so I have that broad range of experience,” Rosales said.

After the county elections office validates all the provisional ballots March 7,
votes still need to go to their respective parties locally for an audit
and then those numbers get audited on a state level.

Official results may not be available until March 14.