Two Weeks After Conceding Puerto Rican Election, Luis Fortuño Asks for an Official Recount

Nov 20, 2012
5:19 PM

This afternoon Puerto Rican governor Luis Fortuño formally requested a recount of the election he conceded two weeks ago to governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla.

Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño

According to a breaking news report by Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Día, the electoral head of island's pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP), Edwin Mundo, said that the initial preliminary certification by the island's official election commission (CEE) was not accurate and that the margin of García Padilla's victory will now be smaller, enough to ask for a recount. 

With 100% of all precincts reporting, the CEE's main site shows the following tally.

Fortuño trails by García Padilla, the pro-commonwealth candidate, by 12,971 votes. The current tally falls outside the .5% margin that would trigger an automatic recount (the current margin is 69%). The voter spread is much more than the 100 vote spread that would also force a recount. The official letter from Mundo, according to END's piece, requests that once the .5% is reached, a manual recount should be made. However, according the END, the head of the CEE admitted that there are now about 20,000 votes that still need to be counted, and that the .5% could now be reached.