Eddy County voters elect new commissioner

It's not over until the election results are certified, especially when there's a race as close as the Eddy County Commission was.

After the Nov. 6 midterm election, the Eddy County Canvassing Board sat down in the commissioners' room of the Eddy County Courthouse to review and certify ballots cast. The Eddy County Canvassing Board is comprised of Commissioner Neal Rud, Auditor Patty Williams, Eddy County Recorder Patty Hilbert, Fern Schuster and Deb Belquist.

The meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 13 began with the members taking the oath of office before diving into the details. Williams reported to the board that 57 percent of the ballots cast, or 723 total, were sent by mail. The remaining 537 ballots were cast at the Brown Memorial on Election Day.

As mentioned, the race to watch was that of the Eddy County Commission. Four gentlemen were on the ballot, incumbents Neal Rud and Jeff Pfau and challengers Dave Gehrtz and Michael Carter, vying for two seats. In unofficial results, Rud received the most votes (761) and easily won re-election. Dave Gehrtz appeared to have secured the second seat with 512 total votes. However, Michael Carter was right behind, receiving 497 total votes. The difference between the two of them was just 15 votes, less than 2 percent of Rud's total. Per state statute, a candidate whose vote total is between 0.5 percent and 2 percent lower than the number of votes received by the top candidate, he or she can demand a recount. In this case, 15.28 votes represented the 2 percent difference.

There were five mail ballots rejected by poll workers on election day because the signatures on the ballot and the application did not appear to match. The canvassing board reviewed each ballot and corresponding application to determine if the signatures were close enough to allow the ballot to be counted. The board choose to accept three of the five ballots. They also allowed one ballot to be counted that had been received after the election but was postmarked Nov. 5, for a total of four additional ballots that needed to be counted. All of the ballots were received from voters who reside in Precinct #1, within the city limits of New Rockford.

Counting the four additional ballots did not change the spread between Gehrtz and Carter, however, as the voters chose Neal Rud and Jeff Pfau, adding to the incumbents' totals. In official results, Rud garnered three more votes, for a total of 764 votes, and Pfau got two additional, for a total of 476. Gehrtz captured the second seat with 512 votes.

After the results were certified by the canvassing board, Eddy County Auditor Patty Williams called Carter to explain that since the vote totals for him and Gehrtz did not change and remained within the 2 percent threshold, he was still entitled to demand a hand recount at his own expense. Carter declined, and Gehrtz was then declared the new county commissioner. His term will begin in December.

Rud will start his third term in December. He was first elected to the commission in 2010 and then was re-elected in an unopposed race in 2014.

It is interesting to note that more Eddy County voters cast ballots this year than in the 2016 general election, when President Trump was elected. The vote total in 2016 was 1,262, and the official total in this election was 1,264.