Cameron County elections officials knew they'd have to wait until Tuesday to count mail-in votes and provisional votes, since the law requires the department to allow a waiting period of five days after Election Day, for the votes to arrive.
However, they did not expect to also be counting ballots that were cast on Election Day, which officials said were misplaced.
"Some of those ballots were placed in an envelope, because they were folded or something, (and) the machine didn't take them and weren't able to be scanned,” Elections Administrator Roger Ortiz said.
Ortiz said these ballots should've been counted on election night, but were overlooked and somehow put aside with election supplies.
It wasn’t until a few days after the election that an employee found the envelopes, from about five or six precincts.
Ortiz adds he understands some candidates will be upset over those votes being counted just now.
"We have to depend on people, obviously I can’t be everywhere at the same time” Ortiz said. “People are human and they will make some mistakes. I’m not saying that it's alright, but I’m saying that it can happen."
Only about three mail-in ballots have come in after Election Day, Ortiz said.
However, with votes left to be counted, close races like the one for Constable Precinct 1 between Constable Horacio Zamora and his opponent Gilbert Delgadillo where only one votes separates the two – could take a turn.
"I guess one of the ways to avoid it is to probably have more control somehow – I don’t see how - but somehow, have more control at every station on Election Day," Ortiz said.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT