Kelly White, Texas House Democratic challenger, filed for a recount Thursday after provisional and overseas ballots left her with a 147 vote margin of defeat.
"Statistically this is a dead heat," said Melissa Abel, White campaign spokeswoman.
White ran against freshman incumbent Todd Baxter for District 48, which extends Northwest from Austin to the Williamson and Burnet county lines. Baxter was not available for comment Thursday.
Mike Lavigne, chief of staff for the Texas Democratic Party, said there is no reason to think any inconsistency occurred during the election, but with the margin being so close, they want to be sure.
The White campaign will be responsible for meeting the cost of the electronic recount, which they anticipate will bear a price tag of a few thousand dollars.
"[White] owes it to her supporters to do this," Abel said. "We will use the electronic method because a manual count would be prohibitively expensive."
Alan Sager, Travis County Republican chairman, said the recount will not affect the results of the race, and White needs to understand the election is over.
"Of course she's entitled to ask for a recount, but we watched the process very carefully; we had poll watchers in place, and this is a waste of the taxpayers' time," Sager said. "Unless she sneaks some ballots in at the last minute, nothing is going to change."
The Secretary of State must notify Baxter of the recount before it can officially take place. Abel said they don't expect to hear anything until the week after Thanksgiving.
Throughout the campaign, White repeatedly made use of accusations that Baxter is tied to campaign contributions stemming from House Majority Leader Tom Delay's political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority. Three of the PAC's top fund-raisers are under indictment for allegedly accepting corporate donations that were funneled into Republican campaigns of DeLay's choosing. Baxter was named as the chief recipient of the funds, allegedly receiving $46,000 in total contributions from the PAC.
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