Ballots missing in the recount for Laredo Council District Two Race

LAREDO, TX (KGNS) - A recent election recount for Laredo City Council District Two results in more questions than answers.

Election officials are trying to explain just how 269 ballots have allegedly gone missing and are unaccounted for.

The allegation of missing ballots is being made by Richie Rangel who lost the City Council District Two race to Daisy Campos by six votes.

The new tally was part of a court ordered recount made by a district judge in the election contest by Rangel against councilmember Daisy Campos.

Court documents filed by Rangel’s attorney allege that after more than 12-hours only 3,886 votes were counted, which is 269 less ballots than the 4,155 ballots that were counted on Election Day.

It goes on to say that the ballots could not be located by the Webb County Elections Office.

As a result, the recount could not be certified to the court.

The filing concludes that the missing ballots were from precinct 1-30 which is in District Two and was the voting precinct where Mr. Rangel received more votes than Campos.

KGNS News did speak to Armando Lopez who was the chairman of the recount.

Lopez said that he does not believe that ballots are missing, instead, he believes it may have been human error and that they were misplaced.

He goes on to say he trusts they will be found.

As far the next step Castillo, said one option is to do another recount using what is called a CVR which stands for cast vote record which is basically a digital copy made each time a ballot is cast.

Those digital copies are like a PDF and are available 60 days after the elections which has already passed.

So far, neither party has responded to that option.

Castillo adds that the elections office has offered both parties a third recount at no cost, but they have not responded to this proposal.

The filing concludes that the missing ballots were from precinct 1-30 which is in district two and was the voting precinct where Mr. Rangel received more votes than Campos.

For more headlines. click here.

Copyright 2023 KGNS. All rights reserved.