EL PASO COUNTY — The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder's Office started the process to recount four elections from the June primaries.
All of the races being contested are on the Republican side of the ballot and include Secretary of State, State Senate District 9, Clerk and Recorder, and County Coroner.
Peter Lupia ran for County Clerk, and Dr. Rae Ann Weber ran for County Coroner. The candidates paid a combined $20,800 to get their election re-certified.
El Paso County Clerk Chuck Broerman stated, "Today we are conducting the logic and accuracy test for the recount. We had a number of candidates that have paid the fees in order to conduct the recount".
Broerman's office reported those tests to be 100 percent accurate Saturday night.
The machines have been tested thousands of times since the county received them in 2017, according to the County Clerk's Office.
The state will pay costs associated with a recount if a candidate wins or loses by a margin of 0.5 percent. Lupia lost by a margin of 28 points, and Weber lost by a margin of 31 points meaning the candidates had to foot the bill.
Former chair of the Republican Party of El Paso County Eli Bremer doesn't think the recount will change the election outcome.
"It's hard to conceive that when nobody in the state seems to remember a time when we had a half a point difference and a recount overturned the election but that when there's a 30-35 point difference you're going to see something", says Bremer.
Broerman agrees.
"I don't envision there being much of a change in this race"
State law requires the recount to use the same machines that ballots were originally counted with, and not by hand. The Clerk's Office will have the recount results by Thursday, August 4th.
Vicki Tonkins, current chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, said in a written statement that Broerman's office has blocked her requests for information about the recount, "but observers have stated it was a disaster.
Granted, they have never done recounts before but I would expect they would be ready from the fact the paperwork was turned in early enough to prepare."
Tonkins also suggested the voting machines are less accurate than human counting and that the county shouldn't use them.
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