Gannett Capital Bureau

BATON ROUGE - The official count of Saturday's election began Tuesday and, so far, the results show the unofficial tally is accurate within seventh-thousandths of 1 percent.

"The percentages are not going to change," Assistant Secretary of State Frances Sims said after 42 of the 64 parishes had filed certified results.

Blanco's count went up by 714 votes, to 731,456 from 730,742. Jindal's count went up by 323 votes.

The state's one tied vote, in Vermilion Police Jury District 11, was broken when the certified results showed Ravis Menard with 774 votes to 773 votes for Pervais Gaspard. Both are Democrats.

"It's as close as it gets," Sims said.

When there is a tie, state law says there must be another runoff on the third Saturday after the secretary of state publishes the results. That's called promulgation, and it's when a vote count is final. Court lawsuits often are filed in extremely close elections to force recounting, Sims said.

The state's other closest race was a 13-vote margin between two Republicans running for House District 31, split between Lafayette and Vermilion parishes, in which Don Trahan had 8,181 votes to Charles Buckels' 8,168 votes. In that race, Lafayette Parish officials were recounting absentee ballots.

"It shows the importance of each and every vote," Sims said.