Is Gonzales now the winner?

The boxes had been stowed in a vault at the Brewster County elections administrator's office and apparently weren't discovered until Friday, according to a news release from the elections chief and County Judge Val Beard.

Beard said, "It was an oversight. The boxes were not actually missing from the time they were taken from the polling places until they were counted. ... They were shunted into a corner of the vault in the tax assessor-collector's office." (The tax assessor-collector and elections administrator share office space.)

She added that ballots from the boxes in question had not been included in totals tallied earlier.

"These are preliminary first votes that will be added to the preliminary totals," Beard said. Then the county Democratic Party will canvass the votes and after that, Beard said, the next step comes when or if one of the candidates wants a recount.

Here is what the press release said: "On Friday, March 7th, three boxes from remote early voting which had not been counted were found in an obscure corner of the vault in our offices. The Secretary of State's Office was promptly called and provided procedures for handling the situation. These boxes were unlocked and the ballots counted on Monday, March 10, 2008. There were a total of 97 ballots in these boxes. The preliminary vote totals in the 83rd District Attorney race for the amended count are: Frank Brown - 1,152 votes; Jesse Gonzales - 1,044 votes."

Gonzales said Tuesday that he learned of the ballot box brouhaha late Monday "but I've gotten no official word. To this moment, I have not received a call from anybody officially connected with the county."

He added, "I'd be shocked if there weren't a recount."

Gonzales said he was frustrated that nobody in an official capacity had notified him about the ballot boxes or the ballot counting that took place Monday.

"I have a vested interest in this," he said. "This is of such public interest ... they are obligated to tell me."

Gonzales, a Fort Stockton native, is a former assistant district attorney who is finishing his second term as Pecos County attorney. He attended Sul Ross State University and the police academy at Odessa College, receiving his undergraduate degree while working.

Dale Christophersen, county Democratic Party chairman, said he hadn't looked at the latest vote tallies but had heard rumors that Gonzales had won the primary by only three votes. He said the vote canvass tonight would probably take a couple of hours.

He added that the incident "was a case of oversight that three boxes didn't get out on Tuesday [election day]."

Jerri Dale Jones, Brewster County elections administrator, said Tuesday, "The press release says what has happened. Everything is in the press release."

Scott Haywood, communications director with the Elections Division of the Texas Secretary of State's Office, said, "I believe our office has been in communication with Brewster County, but I think there may have been some miscommunication."

In a situation such as this, he said, "There's no formal or official method for our office to step in. The county is responsible for overseeing the election."

Regarding the counting of ballots from the newly discovered boxes, Haywood said, "That wouldn't require any go-ahead from our office, but we would recommend that they [the county] get a court order to open the boxes and count them."