Updated vote totals from a far West Texas county have put Republican U.S. Rep. Will Hurd further ahead of his opponent, Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones, though the margin remains small.
Around 5 p.m. Wednesday, the Texas Secretary of State received updated results from the early voting period and Election Day in the race for Congressional District 23, which stretches from San Antonio nearly to El Paso.
The updated results show Hurd ahead by 1,150 votes. Previous results showed the two-term congressman beating Jones by 689 votes. Results showed Jones up by 282 votes briefly in the early morning hours Wednesday, but those were revised because of reporting errors in Medina County, state officials said.
The most recent update came after election officials in Culberson County, a sparsely populated West Texas county stretching from south of Interstate 10 to the New Mexico border, incorrectly input election results into the Texas Secretary of State’s system, spokesperson Sam Taylor said in an email.
“They incorrectly doubled Gina Ortiz Jones’ vote totals when reporting in our system (922 instead of 461),” Taylor said. “All precincts are reporting accurately now, and there shouldn’t be any additional revisions by any of the counties.”
Taylor said Culberson County’s changes showed up in the Secretary of State portal late Wednesday night or early Thursday.
In a tweeted statement Wednesday, Hurd claimed victory for the second time, following an earlier victory speech at a campaign event Tuesday. Hurd campaign communications director Connor Pfeiffer declined to comment further on Thursday.
Jones tweeted Thursday that her campaign is “working hard to make sure that every single ballot … is counted,” including provisional, absentee, military, and overseas ballots. Jones campaign communications director Noelle Rosellini did not immediately return a phone message Thursday seeking comment.
