An especially tight race for Colorado House District 16, which came down to a mere seven-vote difference on Thursday, has qualified for an automatic recount, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker announced.

Final unofficial election results updated by Schleiker’s office at 8:23 p.m. show Republican challenger Rebecca Keltie, a Navy veteran, with a narrow 50.01% to 49.99% lead over Democratic incumbent Stephanie Vigil, who has served as the district’s representative for the last two years.

There is a difference of only seven votes in the race — 20,640 for Keltie and 20,633 for Vigil.

Colorado law requires automatic recounts if the margin of victory in a race is equal to or less than 0.5% of the winner’s total. Automatic recounts must be completed within 31 days after the election.

Keltie said Friday morning that she felt happy that her lead would hold through the recount process.

“I’m so glad that I can be the person to represent the people. Everyone wanted more common-sense leadership and they definitely voted for it,” Keltie said.

Keltie said she expected the race to be close again this year but was surprised by the final margin. Vigil won her first House race in 2022 by 710 votes, edging out Colorado Springs council member Dave Donelson.

Republicans “took our eyes off the ball” during the previous election, Keltie argued, and she said she was excited to be one of the members who flipped a House seat this year to help end the Democrat supermajority in the state House.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Vigil said she was grateful for the support and the organizers in Colorado Springs that backed her campaign. Vigil stood by the positive campaign she ran and criticized the outside attacks and advertising against her that it took to get the slim margin.

“Constituents in HD-16 who are frustrated and disappointed should know that I am not going anywhere. I will be active in our community in every meaningful way that I can,” Vigil wrote.

Races will not be officially called until the Canvass Board certifies the original vote count on Nov. 27; recounts will then occur for qualifying contests.

“Once the Colorado Secretary of State issues the order for the recount, I will be reaching out to both parties, the candidates and their campaigns to keep them informed,” Schleiker said in an email Thursday night.

In total, 387,297 ballots have been counted for just under 78% voter turnout, according to clerk’s data.

Schleiker released updated results Thursday after verifying additional ballots, including some that required extra steps to address issues like missing signatures or identification checks, as well as military and overseas ballots. The eight-day period for addressing these “cured” ballots and counting returned military and overseas ballots ended Wednesday night.

It was unclear Thursday exactly how many more ballots were counted, but Schleiker earlier this week estimated the number was in the hundreds.

Additionally, in the tight race for Senate District 12 among two well-known politicians, Democrat Marc Snyder continued to lead Republican opponent Stan VanderWerf. Snyder garnered 48.90% of the vote while VanderWerf had 47.45%.

District 12, currently represented by outgoing Republican Sen. Bob Gardner, encompasses areas west of Colorado Springs, along with Manitou Springs and Fountain. The district is considered competitive, leaning 2% Republican.