Today we received the final counties’ outstanding provisional ballot counts, and it looked like Red Brown had finished 1 vote ahead of Rep. David Simpson for a runoff spot against Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola). However, new information from Camp Co. suggests Simpson has edged out Brown by 6 votes.
Rep. David Simpson
On Election Day, several ballots were double counted by Camp Co. election administrators, who told us that there were “several problems” with tabulating ballots that night. As originally reported, Brown received 185 votes, and Simpson received 159 votes, a difference of 26 votes. Moments ago, the Camp Co. Clerk’s office informed us that the canvassed totals were 173 votes for Brown and 154 for Simpson, a difference of 19 votes. That shift of seven net votes is enough to give Simpson a 6-vote lead.
We, and many others, previously reported Simpson had a 13-vote lead after Election Day. Brown appears to have received 14 more provisional ballot votes than Simpson across the 16-county district. However, Simpson’s actual lead after Election Day appears to have been 20 votes. Adding the provisional votes gives Simpson a 6-vote lead.
You can view the current figures for each county here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bz3lyiq9l2mt2my/SD1%20Provisional%20BallotsREVISED.xlsx?dl=0 (XLS document). We caution that these numbers are still largely unofficial and un-canvassed, so results may yet change.
A recount will ultimately settle the race.
We appreciate the input of Jordan Berry, who alerted us to the discrepancies in the Camp Co. results.
