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Recount confirms Precinct 2 commissioner runoff
Ronny Best, Michael Balajka and Patrick Petrisky were candidates in the Republican primary for Calhoun County commissioner Precinct 2. A recount conducted Thursday slightly adjusted vote totals but confirmed that Best and Balajka will advance to the May 26 runoff election.
Vote totals adjust slightly but Best and Balajka remain top finishers
A recount conducted Thursday in the Republican primary race for Calhoun County commissioner Precinct 2 slightly adjusted vote totals but did not change which candidates will advance to the May 26 runoff election.
The recount reduced Patrick Petrisky’s total by nine votes compared with the original count while totals for Ronny Best and Michael Balajka remained unchanged. The adjustment did not affect the outcome of the race.
The recount was requested by Petrisky after unofficial results from the March 3 Republican primary showed him finishing six votes behind Balajka.
Because the original ballots were counted by hand, Texas election law required the recount to be conducted using the same method.
Following the recount, updated vote totals are:
County commissioner, Precinct 2 (recount)
Ronny Best — 386 (43.23%)
Michael Balajka — 261 (29.23%)
Patrick Petrisky — 246 (27.54%)
Initial results from the March 3 primary showed:
County commissioner, Precinct 2 (original count)
Ronny Best — 386 (42.79%)
Michael Balajka — 261 (28.94%)
Patrick Petrisky — 255 (28.27%)
While the recount slightly adjusted totals and percentages, it did not change the order of finish in the race.
Under Texas election law, because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the primary, the top two candidates will advance to a runoff election scheduled for May 26.
Petrisky said he requested the recount to verify the results and left the process confident in the outcome.
“I feel very confident in the numbers that came out,” Petrisky said. “I’m just sad that I didn’t do well enough to win, but it is what it is. I appreciate everybody that voted for me and sorry I didn’t communicate better.”
Petrisky said ballots were first sorted by candidate before being counted in batches while multiple volunteers recorded tallies.
“What they did for the most part was that they got everybody’s name, sorted the ballots by our race by who got what vote,” he said. “Then after they sorted them out, they counted them in batches of 50.”
Two people tracked tallies while another verified ballots by calling out each name, he said.
“I felt really good about it because I could see that everybody was trying and with the way they divided the votes up it was very trackable,” Petrisky said.
He said the counting itself appeared reliable but transferring totals between tally sheets took the most time.
“The counting is the very most reliable part,” he said. “The problem where any issues can come in is where they transfer the counts onto the tally sheets.”
The recount also revealed 10 undervotes that were not included in the original totals, though Petrisky said they did not affect the race outcome.
Looking ahead, Petrisky said he may consider running again in a future election.
“I think I’m going to wait and not run for next term but the next term over, or two terms from now,” he said. “I would like to run when my kids are out of school and everything before I run again.”
Balajka, who will face Best in the runoff, said he appreciated the volunteers who helped conduct the recount.
“I feel confident. I wasn’t that worried about the numbers,” Balajka said. “I appreciate all those volunteers and what they did.”
Balajka said the ballot counting itself moved quickly but compiling totals and verifying tally sheets took longer.
“The counting seemed to go pretty quick,” he said. “It’s all the tallying at the end that takes time.”
Volunteers passed tally sheets around for verification and signatures before compiling final totals, he said.
“That’s where the time comes in,” Balajka said.
He said fatigue can easily set in during the lengthy process but expressed appreciation for the volunteers who assisted with the count.
He said fatigue can easily set in during the lengthy process but expressed appreciation for the volunteers who assisted with the count.
“If you’ve been working all day doing that, I can see how fatigue would set in,” he said. “But I don’t blame any of those people. They volunteered and gave a lot of time to do what they did.”
Watching the recount firsthand reinforced his confidence in the process, he said.
“We all stood there and watched them count and mark them and everything adds up,” Balajka said. “It does seem like a good process.”
Balajka said he is now focused on the upcoming runoff election.
“I’m confident in my next race and I just hope we can make it the next couple of months and that everything runs smoothly,” he said.
Best, who finished first in the primary, said observing the recount gave him a better understanding of the work involved in hand-counting ballots.
“It was a very neat process to watch and learn what they went through, hand counting the first time,” Best said. “It’s very time-consuming and very tedious work.”
Much of the effort involves repeatedly verifying tallies to ensure accuracy, he said.
“It’s just all the counting and recounting to make sure the tallies are right and sorting everything out,” Best said.
Best also noted the undervotes discovered during the recount.
“There were some undervotes that weren’t shown to us first on the original and they were today,” he said.
Best said he plans to continue campaigning ahead of the runoff.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing,” he said.
