El Paso District Attorney’s race headed to a run-off

El Paso district attorney Jaime Esparza is heading into a runoff election with nearest challenger Yvonne Rosales.

ABC-7 confirmed the final numbers have been counted in Culberson County, and the provisional ballots have been tallied in El Paso County.

Voters in Culberson County overwhelmingly chose Esparza, who’s been in office for more than 20 years. He won the county with 283 votes, or 55.5 percent, compared to Rosales’ 113 votes, or 22.2 percent. Leonard “Lenny” Morales tied Rosales with 113 votes.

Culberson County officials had told ABC-7 on Election Day March 1 that election results wouldn’t be final until March 14, nearly two weeks later.

Combining Culberson’s final results with Hudspeth’s and El Paso’s brings Esparza’s vote count to 24,862 of the 49,923 ballots cast. He garnered 49.8 percent of the total, just shy of the 50 percent plus one vote needed by law to avoid a runoff.

The runoff election has been set for May 24.