With the first vote count coming in the early morning hours of March 4, Jennifer Fleck appeared to be and still is the front-runner, and Don Zimmerman appeared to be in second place for Texas' House District 47, with 5,760 votes and 4,099 votes, respectively.
The rules for the primary election state the victor must garner more than 50% of the total votes. Since no candidate tallied more than 50%, a runoff election will occur between the top two vote-getters May 26.
Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir confirmed March 11 Berry pulled ahead of Zimmerman with Fleck still comfortably in the lead. Now that the tally includes the newly counted mail-in and provisional ballots, Berry ended up with 4,105 votes to Zimmerman's 4,104.
DeBeauvoir said the final tally will be taken to the Travis County Republican Party, which will then take it to the Texas secretary of state's office to be canvassed.
The results are not official until all of the votes are canvassed, but if the numbers hold, DeBeauvoir said Fleck and Berry will likely face off in a May 26 runoff election.
Berry's campaign representative, Craig Murphy, said since Berry pulled ahead in the final Travis County numbers, it will be up to Zimmerman's camp to call for a recount, and that will be likely given Berry's razor-thin margin of victory.
"That's excellent news, and obviously we're thrilled," Murphy said upon learning Berry had taken the unofficial lead.
Andy Hogue, the Travis County Republican Party's communications director, said the canvassing will take place March 12 at 10 a.m., and after that, the count will be official.
"Looks like Don [Zimmerman] has some money left over to in theory finance a recount," Hogue said. "I think that would be within the realm of possibility."
Information from the Texas secretary of state's office states Zimmerman has until March 13 at 2 p.m. to call for a recount.
Once two candidates are selected to square off in the May 26 runoff, the victor of that race will face Democrat Vikki Goodwin in the Nov. 3 general election.
Community Impact Newspaper will update this story, as more information is forthcoming.
