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Nov 10, 2008 10:46 pm US/Central
Harper-Brown Wins State Rep. District 105 Race
IRVING (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Only a handful of races were still too close to call after last Tuesday's election.
Monday, election officials started counting the remaining ballots in the State Representative District 105 Race.
In that district, of the 40,000 votes cast only 29 votes separated incumbent Linda Harper-Brown from Bob Romano. That lead dwindled to 20, but it was enough to call a winner.
Harper-Brown is the new state representative for the district.
The counting hung on the provisional ballots. They're called provisional because they're disputed. Because of the unresolved issues, the ballots were not part of what was counted on election night, but they still might be valid for a variety of reasons.
"[If voters are] not registered, not registered to vote in that precinct," explained Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet. "Maybe they requested a mail ballot and voted by mail already."
The examination of those ballots began Monday morning. Of 231 such ballots, 61 were deemed to be valid and were counted along with the mailing, the early and day-of voting.
The race was decided by a ballot board. It has eight teams with one democrat and one republican on each team.
But Republicans claimed the Democratic Party elections judge unlawfully allowed some of those provisional votes to be counted. Democrats refute the claim.
The race is crucial to both sides. Harper-Brown's win, gives Republicans in the house a slim majority. If Romano would have won, it would have put the house in a 75-75 tie, leaving the speaker's position and perhaps committee assignments up in the air.
Romano could ask for a recount, and some believe there will be pressure from the Democrats to do just that.
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