Kleberg County Judge Pete De La Garza filed a petition for a recount of the votes cast in the March 2 Democratic primary election here between him and Juan Escobar for the Democratic nomination of county judge in the November general election.

Escobar won, and after the recount he accumulated three more votes, bringing his total to 1,881 while De La Garza gained one vote, bringing his total to 1,757.

Because there is no Republican challenger in the general election, Escobar is the presumed county judgeelect and would take office Jan. 1, 2011.

“We assembled a committee of five people who have previously worked on recounts for the county Thursday morning and had a manual recount of all the votes for that position,” Kleberg County Democratic Party Chairman Alfred L. Isassi said.

According to Isassi, De La Garza placed a deposit of $1, 275 for the recount to be held, which included wages for the five people who conducted the recount.

“The recount committee members will be paid about $9 an hour for the five hours it took to count all the votes, and the money which is not used towards the workers will be returned to De La Garza,” Isassi said.