Overseas Ballots Widen Harper-Brown's Lead

by: Michael Hurta

Mon Nov 10, 2008 at 09:26 PM CST

The waiting continues for state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown and her Democratic challenger Bob Romano in the race for state House District 105.

Harper-Brown had a 34-vote lead over Romano on Monday after overseas ballots were counted, according to Dallas County election figures.

Harper-Brown entered Monday's count with a 29-vote margin over Romano. She picked up nine overseas ballots and he gained four.

Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet says 61 provisional ballots remained to be counted Monday night.

The overseas ballots are military ballots, so it should have been expected to go in Harper-Brown's direction.  Also, there is no saying if any of the already-counted provisional ballots have been included in the most recently released tally.  Since the total vote count went up only slightly, I would assume the answer is no.

CBS 11 explains how the provisional ballots will be decided:

The race will be decided by a ballot board.  It has eight teams with one democrat and one republican on each team.

Sherbet says if the teams can't agree on the validity of a ballot, then a provisional ballot judge casts the tie-breaker.  In this case, she's a democrat.