Methods and systems are described for generating early and late votes for a clock recovery system, each early or late vote associated with a detected transitional data pattern in a data stream, generating a first early-late vote measurement reflective of an imbalance between the early and late votes that are generated during a first time interval, generating a second early-late vote measurement reflective of an imbalance between the early and late votes that are generated during a second time interval, comparing the first and the second early-late vote measurements, and outputting a CDR-lock signal at least in part responsive to determining that the first and the second early-late vote measurements are within a predetermined threshold.