La Puebla businessman LeRoy Lopez is actively pursuing his demand for a recount in his narrow 198 to 205 loss to Kenny Borrego in the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative District 6 Board of Trustees election July 1, Lopez said Monday.
“I’m not dropping out and I want my supporters to know that,” Lopez said. “We are definitely pursuing this situation. I never got my recount.”
Lopez asked the Co-op for a vote recount July 6 and a clarification regarding the purpose of certificates of authority he was given as a candidate, he said.
Lopez had believed the certificates were absentee ballots and spent many hours signing up business owners, believing he could submit the certificates on election day and have them counted as votes for him.
But Co-op General Manager Ernesto Gonzales said the certificate functions only to identify who is authorized to cast a vote on behalf of unincorporated business members of the Co-op. The Co-op does not have proxy voting, so businesses cannot authorize a candidate who is not the owner or part owner of a business to vote on behalf of that business, Gonzales said.
“I asked for a clarification but I’ve not gotten that,” Lopez said. “I want to know what they’re all about and why they were handed out to candidates. We were told to take them to unincorporated business owners.”
Gonzales had said July 27 that Lopez had been told his only remedy would be to rerun valid ballots through the vote-counting machine but that doing so would entail a cost. At that time, Gonzales had said Lopez had not pursued the matter further.
“He only gave me a copy of their elections policy,” Lopez said. “He didn’t tell me nothing about costs.”
Borrego was sworn into office and elected Board vice chairman July 19. Lopez has retained Española attorney Wilbert Maez to represent him, Lopez said. But Lopez would not say whether or not he would be filing a lawsuit.
“We haven’t heard from Maez or Lopez since (July 6),” Gonzales said Monday. “Until we do, there is nothing to respond to.”
Maez and Borrego did not return calls for comment.