Land commissioner recount OK’d

The statewide recount in the race for New Mexico land commissioner will start 8 a.m. today, according to Roosevelt County Clerk DeAun Searl.

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted the stay it had imposed after reviewing a petition filed by incumbent Democrat Ray Powell over concerns his campaign had with the procedures for the recount.

The latest totals provided by the secretary of state’s office show Republican Aubrey Dunn leading Powell by several hundred votes, a margin so small it triggered an automatic recount under state law.

Each county will use the greater of 100 ballots or 2 percent of the total ballots cast to test the tabulators.

Searl said the sample group done by machine will be compared to the same sample tabulated by hand. If the results match, machines will be used to tabulate the results. If they don’t, ballots will be have to be counted by hand.

There were 3,858 votes cast in Roosevelt County during the Nov. 4 election.

Searl said the recount would take one day if done by machine and a day and a half if hand counted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.