Recount doesn't change results

A recount of the razor-thin District 63 state legislative race did not change the margin on Republican Martin Zamora’s victory.

According to unofficial results from all five counties included in District 63, incumbent George Dodge Jr. gained two votes in Curry County, while Zamora gained one following the unofficial results of the Nov. 6 election.

Three additional votes in Curry County were added during the county’s Nov. 9 canvas, with Dodge getting two and Zamora one. The canvassed results didn’t change during Curry County’s recount. No changes were reported by De Baca, Roosevelt, Guadalupe and San Miguel county officials, though results uploaded to the secretary of state’s page showed Zamora dropping from 430 votes to 429 in De Baca.

That makes the final total a 2,982-2,957 win for Zamora, a Clovis rancher.

The District 63 race, along with recounts of the District 20 and 22 races, will be certified after the state canvassing board meets Monday. Alex Curtas, communications director for the secretary of state’s office, said certification and issuance of election certificates for those three races are the only agenda items.

Dodge wasn’t surprised the recount didn’t go his way.

“We have a great electoral system,” Dodge said. “The secretary of state has a great staff, and all of these counties have very experienced people working these elections. I wasn’t surprised.”

Dodge, who will continue his work as the Guadalupe County manager, said he appreciated the eight years he received in the position and wished Zamora well on his upcoming term.

Zamora, who didn’t return a phone call for this story, didn’t expect the recount to swing the election either, and has spent the last few weeks appearing at public meetings to introduce himself and see how he can best help in the upcoming legislative session.

Curry County Clerk Annie Hogland said the most difficult part of the process was rounding up all of the ballots. Because not all of Curry County voters resided in District 63, county employees had to first go through more than 10,000 ballots individually and find the ones with District 63 before doing machine and hand tabulations.

The two other recounts slightly changed the numbers in favor of the leading candidates. In District 20, Democrat Abbas A. Akhil’s margin went up by five votes in a 5,896-5,782 victory over Jim Dines. In District 22, Republican Gregg Williams Schmedes’ margin went up by four in a 8,200-8,058 win over Jessica Valasquez.