Her margin is margin is a bit smaller, but still greater than zero, and that’s what counts.
With the votes counted again, the Austin Democrat beat Republican challenger Dan Neil by just 12 votes, Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said Thursday night.
Neil had called for the recount after Howard had been declared the winner of the Nov. 2 election by just 16 votes of more than 51,000 cast in northwestern Travis County’s District 48.
In the end, only a few mistakes were found — all of which were on paper ballots — and there were not enough discrepancies to change the outcome of the election, officials said.
Howard said she wasn’t surprised by the outcome but nevertheless was happy to put the recount behind her.
“I’m glad to have a final outcome that is actually final,” she said. “The work of the district continues.”
Before the results were announced Thursday, Neil sent out a news release complaining that the clerk’s office didn’t properly count several overseas ballots.
But DeBeauvoir said Neil’s concerns were unfounded.
That’s likely to be the end of it, though Neil may file for an election contest. There’s been at least one of those filed for the past few elections, with only the Heflin-Vo contest actually making it to the point of being investigated. My guess is if one is filed it will go nowhere, too.