Martin Cuellar the new, official winner of the Webb County Sheriff's race

Hat tip to La Sanbe: Martin Cuellar wins Webb County Sheriff's race in court today.

State District Judge David Peeples ruled Thursday that Martin Cuellar won the runoff election against Sheriff Rick Flores. Despite attempts by Flores and his attorneys to present the April 8 runoff election as tainted with inaccuracies that merit ordering a new election, Peeples, the administrative judge for the Fourth Judicial District of Texas, ruled Cuellar the winner of the runoff, this time by 42 votes.

Cuellar's total has see sawed from 37 up to 133 down to 39 up to 31 up to finally (?) 42 up.

The electronic voting machine problems are explained differently than I had understood. The individual voting machine flashcards were 'corrupted' while the polling location memory files (PEBs) had the exact number of ballots expected available for counting.

Glitches in flashcards used in two electronic voting machines during the judicial recount made 29 ballot images unavailable.

...

Cuellar attorney Baldemar Garcia Jr. argued that because the original number of votes was still on the personal electronic ballots [PEBs] and because combination forms showed how many people voted electronically, the original number should be honored.

What about the 131 lost votes claimed by the Flores camp?

[Cuellar attorney Baldemar Garcia Jr.] presented more evidence, however, indicating the discrepancy could be explained after subtracting the number of provisional ballots not counted, approximately two dozen cancelled electronic votes and about 48 names scratched from the voter lists.

Oh, and Webb County Elections Administrator Oscar Villarreal has been compiling the voters' signature list incorrectly.

Wood asked Villarreal if he was aware that he was compiling the list contrary to state statute, to which Villarreal replied that he was unaware of the law and admitted he was surprised to hear one existed.