Still not decided yet.
Terry Meza
The tight Texas House District 105 race between Republican state Rep. Rodney Anderson and Democratic challenger Terry Meza is headed for a recount. Meza trails Anderson by 69 votes, according to the latest Dallas County elections office tally.
The Secretary of State’s office today approved Meza’s request for the recount, which is scheduled for Nov. 28.
“I’m cautiously optimistic and just feel like we owe it to the voters when we say, ‘Every vote counts,'” Meza said Monday.
[…]
The current vote difference is less than one-fifth of a percent of the 47,369 ballots cast. But this eastern Dallas County district that covers parts of Irving and Grand Prairie is no stranger to close contests.
Former State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown famously held on to the seat in 2008, when she beat a Democrat by a mere 19 votes. That race also went to a recount and prompted a series of lawsuits that stretched the contest into December. But the race had higher stakes eight years ago: Harper-Brown’s eventual victory gave Republicans a narrow 76-74 majority in the lower chamber. Now, Republicans hold a comfortable majority in the 150-seat chamber regardless of who wins this seat.
See here for the background. Meza actually made up about half of her initial deficit with the overseas and provisional ballots, which is impressive in and of itself. I seriously doubt the recount will change the current margin, however. Since I started blogging, there have been three legislative races closer than this one that went to a recount (and in two cases to an election contest heard in the House) without the result changing: Hubert Vo in 2004, Donna Howard in 2010, and the aforementioned Linda Harper-Brown in 2008. I strongly suspect that Rodney Anderson will prevail, and will face an even stronger challenge in 2018.
In 2018 with Governor Abbott and a US senate contest leading an off-year election, I would doubt that Democrats could mount a stronger challenge for that district. 2020 would be a more likely year for flipping the district.
I disagree. The election is going to be under a GOP controlled government. Also that district continues to change demographics. I could see a narrow democratic win in 2018.
Actually, to be precise, the vote difference as of yesterday is 64 votes. Meza gained 5 votes since last week. The original difference immediately following the election was 120 then when counting provisional ballots and overseas ballots commenced it went down to 69 and now 64. A side note: Considering the only Dept. of Public Safety location in Grand Prairie was closed in May 2016 (for what many believe were questionable reasons) this is quite impressive we think.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/2016/05/17/grand-prairie-license-center-shuts-down-but-fear-not-online-renewals-possible
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/TX/Dallas/63891/183923/Web01/en/summary.html
As of 11/21/16 1:15 PM Central Standard Time:
Rodney Anderson: 23,720 50.07%
Terry Meza: 23,656 49.93%
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