It looks like Mike McLachlan lost his epic rematch with J. Paul Brown for House District 59.

Final unofficial results from the Colorado secretary of state’s office show that with 34,115 votes total, McLachlan is trailing Brown by 229 votes.

For almost 24 hours after the polls closed, the race was too close to call, with new numbers trickling out of Gunnison County late into Wednesday evening, and Brown’s slim lead on McLachlan thinning with every new batch of returns.

According to a 5:25 p.m. interview with Gunnison County’s Clerk and Recorder Stella Dominguez, Gunnison County’s votes for the 59th Colorado House Race were final, counted and published.

But Gunnison’s numbers changed just an hour later.

As of 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, the final unofficial results show that Brown’s margin of victory is unbelievably tight, close – but not quite close enough – to the margin needed to trigger an automatic recount.

Brown received 17,172 votes compared with McLachlan’s 16,943, a 50.34 percent to 49.66 percent Brown victory if the votes stand.

However, some ballots still must be counted, including provisional ballots and ballots sent from overseas and military voters.

On Wednesday afternoon, McLachlan said at this juncture, he wasn’t prepared to concede.

“I am doing pretty good,” he said. “The vote hasn’t been completely tabulated.”

He said he was aware unofficial results had him behind Brown by fewer than 300 votes.

“I will tell you this: It doesn’t look promising. But here’s what I also know: The results won’t be official until each of the county clerks certifies the election. I’m happy to make a concession speech at the right time. But I’m not prepared to speak until the final numbers are in,” he said.

Rich Coolidge, spokesman for the Colorado Secretary of State, said county clerks have until Nov. 24 to certify their results.

In addition to overseas ballots, Coolidge said there’s another obvious mechanism that might shift vote totals. He said on election night, there are always ballots that county clerks cannot count because they failed to meet one of the highly specific but inarguable standards that make ballots technically valid. For instance, if there’s a problem with the signature on a ballot, it’s authenticity cannot be verified on election night.

These ballots can be “cured” in the coming days, and if they are cured, they count.

Coolidge said it’s unclear how many ballots in the state, let alone the 59th, are eligible for curing. But, he said, the process is fairly simple.

If there’s a problem with someone’s ballot, the county clerk will send a letter saying so, he said. But even if the letter gets lost in the mail, the person would likely hear from people working for either political party, who would badger the person to cure their ballot.

While McLachlan assesses whether or not Wednesday night’s results in fact spell doom, Brown said he was confident in his victory.

“You know, we’re pretty confident. It was certainly close. We just hope that it’ll continue through. But we’re thinking it’s pretty much a done deal,” he said.

Brown, who spoke by telephone from Denver where he’s having dinner with the Republican House caucus, said it had been an extremely stressful day.

“I’m just very thankful, very appreciative of everyone who supported us with prayers and finances and all the volunteers and everything,” he said.

“Now we roll up our sleeves, and we go to work for the 59th district and the state of Colorado,” he said.

Brown said soon he would be back in the district, “and hopefully any concerns or anything that the residents of the 59th have – especially about reducing and repealing unneeded laws – hopefully people will get in touch with me and we’ll go from there,” he said.

Brown said about his opponent, McLachlan, “I have the deepest respect for him and wish him the very best, him and Barbara, and hopefully I would like to represent him also. He’s part of the 59th district. I’m open to any suggestions that he might have,” he said.

Asked whether he had anything he wanted to say to McLachlan directly, Brown paused for a moment, then the words came out in a rush.

“Yes. You ran a really good campaign.”

cmcallister@durangoherald.com