Election continues as recounts being

BERNALILLO, N.M. (KRQE) - Almost a month after the election there are still no clear winners in two races for the state House.

Last week the State Canvassing Board ordered automatic recounts in those races, and those started Tuesday.

At the Sandoval County Clerk's Office precinct officials were recounting every ballot in the race between Republican Paul Pacheco and Democrat Marci Blaze.

Pacheco currently leads Blaze by 66 votes in the race for a metro-area House seat.

The first step of this process was to check the accuracy of every voting machine in the affected precincts.  All of the machines checked out.

So now officials are running each ballot through the machines to make sure the count is accurate.

There were also about 300 ballots counted by hand.

Those ballots will have to be counted by hand again.

There are judges from each precinct watching over the current tabulations making sure everything is done correctly.

"The integrity of the count is going smoothly because as a group we worked together many times," Precinct Judge Geoffrey Rinaldi said.  "It makes it easy to do what we're doing because everybody knows what's going on and you don't have to sit there and explain it to everyone.

"Everyone takes this very seriously because they have a job to do."

The recount is also taking place in Bernalillo County since the House district crosses the county line.

The Secretary of State's Office confirms the recount has also begun in the race between incumbent Republican Terry McMillan and Democratic challenger Joanne Ferrary in Las Cruces.

That Doña Ana County House race resulted in a tie with each receiving 6,247 votes.

If the recount results in another tie, then the race will be decided by a game of chance.

According to the Secretary of State's Office that could be a coin toss or a high-card draw.

McMillan and Ferrary told the Albuquerque Journal they'd like to decide the race with a game of basketball or a game of golf.

But the Secretary of State's Office said those are games of skill, not games of chance, so golf and basketball are not options.