July 26, 2016 03:15 PM UTC

At Least We Got That One Vote Counted Correctly

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• by: Colorado Pols

Well, that sucks.

Scott Turner is a Republican who narrowly lost to Longinos Gonzales, Jr. in the June 28th Primary for El Paso County Commissioner (District 4). The final tally had Gonzales winning by just 34 votes — a tantalizingly narrow margin that nevertheless fell outside of the window for an automatic recount conducted at county expense.

But 34 votes just seems so close. It was such a narrow margin, in fact, that Turner agreed to reimburse El Paso County for a recount (which is allowed under Colorado election law, provided the margin between candidates is sufficiently small). The results of the recount were made public today, and, well, it’s hard not to feel a little tinge of sadness for Mr. Turner:

Official Results
July 7, 2016
Gonzales, Jr: 3,450 votes
Turner:  3,416 votes

Recount Results
July 26, 2016
Gonzales, Jr: 3,450 votes
Turner:  3,417 votes

As you can see, the recount did not change the outcome in El Paso County Commissioner District 4…but Turner did end up with one more vote. And it only cost him $2,660!

We don’t know anything about either of these candidates, but you don’t need any personal information to understand how much this would suck for Scott Turner. Sorry, dude.

On the plus side, it certainly affirms that our vote counting systems in El Paso County are in good shape.