BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

FIrst Judicial District Judge Jason Lidyard, the presiding election judge for Los Alamos County, on Wednesday (November 27) appointed Los Alamos Magistrate Judge Catherine Taylor as the Special Master for an automatic recount of the Los Alamos County Commissioner (At Large) general election results.

In an order appointing Judge Taylor states that Judge Lidyard is unable to be present for the automatic recount due to a previously-scheduled jury trial.

The State Canvass Board, composed of the Governor, Secretary of State, and Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court, met Tuesday and signed the certificate of canvass that makes the results of the 2024 General Election official and ordered the Los Alamos recount as well as a recount for State Representative District 57 – Sandoval County. In the Sandoval County contest, the count was 8,374 votes for Republican Catherine Jeanette Cullen and 8,244 for Democrat Michelle Eleanor Sandoval.   

In the Los Alamos County Council contest, the initial results were as follows:

Democrat Ryn Herrmann, 23%, 6,122
Democrat Beverly Neal-Clinton, 22%, 5724
Republican David Reagor, 20%, 5,270
Democrat Denise Derkacs, 19%, 5,025
Libertarian James Wernecke, 16%, 4,320

The next scheduled State Canvass Board meeting to certify the automatic recount results will take place on Dec. 16, 2024.

Statewide, a total of 928,290 (67.13%) people voted in this year’s general election.