By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Amarillo’s goofy recount in its mayoral contest is over.

Any surprises? Hah! None! Mayor Ginger Nelson was re-elected to another two-year term despite the challenge mounted by a challenger, Claudette Smith, who wanted to peel 816 votes away from Nelson’s total to force a runoff. I guess she said something about irregularities.

It ain’t gonna happen.

Nelson said this on social media: I want to personally thank our county election clerks and staff for their hard work in validating the election results of May 1st. Our county employees do an amazing job of running our local elections with integrity and professionalism. I also want to thank the City Secretary, the Secretary of State’s office, and all the City staff who carefully followed the recount process. Most of all, I’m thankful for our citizens for voting in the May 1st municipal election.

I get that I am looking at this from afar, given that I no longer live in Amarillo, but so help me this recount smacked of the kind of sore loserness exhibited by Donald Trump … without a riot that stormed City Hall the way the terrorists stormed Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.

I have heard from a couple of sources that Smith got into a snit with Nelson over a matter and she filed to run for Nelson’s seat because of a personal beef she had — or still has — with the mayor. Oh, does she have a public service record on which to run? Hmm. I haven’t heard of a single thing that she has done.

Well, the recount appears to be over. I would be willing to bet real American money we might never hear from the challenger again.