You periodic reminder that every vote matters

2020 Republican primaries edition.

One vote still separates second and third place in the GOP primary for Texas House District 47, but a revised total released Wednesday pushed Justin Berry ahead of Don Zimmerman for the final spot in the May runoff election.

Zimmerman had held a one-vote margin over Berry in the western Travis County district when unofficial election results were released after the March 3 primary.

All Travis County votes have now been counted, according to updated election results from the county clerk’s office, but Zimmerman can still call for a recount.

Texas election laws allow candidates to petition for a recount if they are trailing an opponent by less than 10% of the total votes received by the opponent.

The updated results showed Berry with 4,105 votes and Zimmerman with 4,104.

Craig Murphy, a spokesman for Berry, said the campaign was not surprised to see a late change, adding that he did not expect the results to change with a recount.

“They’ve done some of the things they would have done during a recount, so it’s less likely to change,” he said, referring to the counting of mail-in, overseas and provisional ballots. “This is one of those rare occasions where every single person in the race for us made a difference.”

The second-place candidate will face attorney Jennifer Fleck in the May 26 runoff.

I noted this in my runoff roundup. Basically, some mail ballots arrive after Tuesday – they just have to be postmarked by then to count – and some provisional ballots get cured, so the final official vote total ticks up a bit. Usually, these things are too small to have an effect on an outcome, but when the margin is one vote, anything can happen. I’ll be a little surprised if Zimmerman doesn’t ask for a recount – which, like the late-counted ballots almost never changes anything, except here we’re talking the very smallest of differences – and he’ll have a few days to decide. The fun never stops. The Trib has more.

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2 Responses to You periodic reminder that every vote matters

  1. Joel says:

    I don’t know who Berry is, but Zimmerman is a complete wacko. Was on the Austin City Council for one term representing the most conservative part of the city. He spent his time on the Council essentially demonizing his own city and its leadership and cozying up to the state government (cf. Ellen Troxclair). Even his conservative constituents couldn’t stand him.

  2. brad says:

    I once decided an election with my vote.

    The GOP precinct chair election for my precinct back in 2014 was decided by one vote. I am an independent, but happened to be voting for Jerry Patterson for Lt Gov in that GOP primary.

    I had just moved a new neighborhood and my HOA president was running for chair. He seemed responsive to my everyday resident inquiries at the time which were pretty perfunctory questions. I gave him my vote and he won by one vote.

    Unfortunately a year later I found out he was a bit of an idiot when it came to him understanding the by-laws, deed restrictions and architectural guidelines for our HOA that he was president of. He attempted to BS my company to not do a new home project in the neighborhood. He was dismissive of my entreaties that he did know what he was doing or talking about and that the neighborhood was going to be super pissed when they saw the cost of legal fees to defend an obvious mistake on his part.

    He tried to sic the HOA’s lawyer on me and strong arm me out of the project. I ran circles around them both.

    Not that it matters to me but he lost his chair an election cycle later.
    I wonder why this all seems so familiar…. a GOP person attempts to bluster and obfuscate when they don’t know what they are doing.

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