Judge rules Election Night results in District 2 race are official

LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) - Visiting Judge Susan Reed has made a decision in the trial for the city council District 2 race. Judge Reed has determined that voting results will go down in the book as official, stating that the results on Election night will stand.

It’s a major win for the Ricardo Rangel team and a blow to Daisy Campos-Rodriguez. That’s because the election night results showed Campos-Rodriguez won by just six votes while the manual recount had her up by 11 votes, which means challenger Ricardo Rangel only has to prove four fewer votes were illegally cast.

In her ruling, Judge Reed cited compelling testimony by Elections Administrator Jose Luis Castillo saying she believed Castillo when he said human error is common during recounts. Castillo also cited that thermo ballots can stick together when the room gets too warm. Catillo said this is common on weekends when the automatic air conditioning units are turned off. When this happens, Castillo said ballots can become compromised when pulling them apart.

Furthermore, Judge Reed said she was confident in the Election night numbers after seeing how each of the ballot’s CVR, or digital image, matched correctly with the number of votes each candidate received plus the undervotes, overvotes, and no votes.

With this ruling, one of three things can happen now: the judge can rule to reverse the results and name Ricardo Rangel the winner, call for a new District 2 election, or Judge Reed can rule to keep Daisy Campos-Rodriguez in office.

The final decision on which option the judge will rule on will take place next Wednesday, February 1 at 10 a.m. via Zoom from the 49th District Court.

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