As I mentioned last week, we will be live-blogging the election all day today. If you’re out and about, swing by your local polling place and punch a few buttons, won’t you, and then let us know how it went. If you’ve already voted, swing by anyway, and give those hardy souls volunteering for their candidates some encouragement. It looks to be a wet morning (Tiny played half a soccer game before the deluge commenced). We will post in chronological fashion with a time stamp, and from the bottom up, meaning that the most current update will be at the top, after this paragraph. Get out and vote, already, won’t you?
12:00 a.m. Just a few final thoughts, before I wander off to bed. First, here are the final voting tallies for Dallas County:
- Registered Voters: 1,145,988
- Ballots Cast: 77,471
- Voter Turnout: 6.76 %
Yep, in an election that decided the course of the school district, the mayor, and how a theoretical vote on the Trinity toll road would shake out, Dallas County cast less than 7 percent of its votes. Granted, this includes not only Dallas and Dallas ISD, but also suburbs like Mesquite, Garland, Rowlett, Lewisville and Sunnyvale, but still – all those places had mayoral elections and school board elections, too.
I say this every single election, but people still tell me they’re busy. You know who is super busy? People in other countries where voting might mean they die. But they do it anyway. We are all busy. But 6.76 percent of us (or, according to WFAA, 11 percent of city of Dallas voters) went out and voted anyway, and found it was ridiculously easy. Did you know that early voting means you can vote anywhere in the city? For real.
When you sit there and kvetch about your property taxes, you know who votes on tax rates? County commissioners. School board members. City council members. Eventually, voters might get a say if their municipality reaches the roll back rate, but yeah, up until then they decide. And if you stayed home, well, you gave up your say.
You gave up your say.
By not voting, you made a conscious decision to step back and let other folks decide whether you are going to be shelling out money for a jacked suspension and busted tires, or whether the city will finally pay true attention to its infrastructure instead of applying piecemeal bandaids.
You gave up your say. And I can’t honestly imagine a less American thing to do.
11:40 p.m. With every blessed 936 precincts in Dallas county reporting, here is a rundown of Election Day:
Winners – Mike Rawlings, Mayor
Scott Griggs, Dallas City Council Seat 1 (unopposed)
Adam Medrano, Dallas City Council Seat 2 (unopposed)
Carolyn King Arnold, Dallas City Council Seat 4
Rick Callahan, Dallas City Council Seat 5
Monica Alonzo, Dallas City Council Seat 6
Tiffinni Young, Dallas City Council Seat 7
Mark Clayton, Dallas City Council Seat 9
Lee Kleinman, Dallas City Council Seat 11 (unopposed)
Sandy Greyson, Dallas City Council Seat 12 (unopposed)
Jennifer Staubach Gates, Dallas City Council Seat 13 (unopposed)
Philip Kingston, Dallas City Council Seat 14 (unopposed)
Edwin Flores, DISD School Board District 1
Dan Micciche, DISD School Board District 3
Bernadette Nutall, DISD School Board District 9
Runoffs: Joe Tave and Casey Thomas, Dallas City Council Seat 3
Dianne Gibson and Erik Wilson, Dallas City Council Seat 8
Paul Reyes and Adam McGough, Dallas City Council Seat 10
11:00 p.m. With 59 of 59 precincts reporting for DISD district 9, I will call the race for Bernadette Nutall, who edged out Offord by 292 votes. That makes the DISD elections final with Flores, Micciche and Nutall.
It’s looking like runoffs for the seat 3 race for Dallas city council, and Joe Tave and Casey Thomas will face off. Tave has said he opposes the toll road, while Thomas said he supports it.
I’ll have a final roundup as soon as all the precincts have reported.
10:20 p.m. With only 34 precincts of 40 reporting in Dallas seat 3, I am reluctant to call the race that has emerged between Casey Thomas II and Joe Tave, with about 422 votes separating the two. I’m also still fairly certain we’re working with a runoff for Seat 8, but with only 31 of 38 precincts reporting, I’ll hold off. I’m also going to keep an eye on the last three precincts in DISD District 9, where less than 300 votes separate Damarcus Offord and Bernadette Nutall.
With 58 of 59 precincts reporting in DISD District 1, I’m confident in calling the race for Edwin Flores. Flores maintained a fairly steady lead over Renard all night, and it looks like it’ll wind up with a 60/40 split for voters.
10:00 p.m. With 772 precincts reporting in Dallas county, not a ton to report. In District 10, Paul Reyes has pulled a smidge ahead of Adam McGough, but not by much – the two are still separated by less than 200 votes. In DISD District 9, 290 votes separate incumbent Bernadette Nutall and Damarcus Offord. In District 1, Kyle Renard needs 1,217 votes to pull up even with Edwin Flores. There are a few more races, but I still feel they are too close to call just yet.
9:45 p.m. While we wait for more returns, how about a look at some of the surrounding area? In Arlington, longtime Mayor Robert Cluck was ousted by Jeff Williams. In Lewisville, Rudy Durham looks to be the leader in the mayor’s race. Mesquite’s mayoral race is still a little too close to call, and in Sunnyvale’s mayoral race Jim Phaup is leading so far.
9:30 p.m. Roughly half the precincts have reported now, and about 50 votes separate Adam McGough and Paul Reyes. This will be a runoff for sure. Voter turnout stats are slowly improving as the night progresses, too.
- Registered voters: 1,145,988
- Ballots Cast: 58,882
- Voter Turnout: 5.14 %
9:10 p.m. We now have 281 precincts reporting, and I can call a few more races. As predicted, I’ll call the Dallas City Council seat 9 for Mark Clayton. I will also call seat 4 for Carolyn King Arnold, seat 5 for Rick Callahan, seat 6 for Monica Alonzo, and seat 7 for Tiffinni Young. I am also looking at a possible call for DISD District 1 soon, as Edwin Flores’ lead is now more than 1,000 votes over Kyle Renard.
I’m also predicting a possible three-way runoff for seat 8 between Dianne Gibson, Gail Terrell and Erik Wilson. With less than 100 votes between Paul Reyes and Adam McGough, I foresee a runoff for seat 10 as well.
8:45 p.m. Eighty-four precincts reporting in Dallas County, and not much has changed. Still. I’m calling the Rawlings/Ronquillo race for Rawlings – making up that kind of early voting deficit on Election Day – especially a rainy local election – is nigh to impossible. I think we will see at least a one runoff, where even fewer people will vote. I’m also calling the DISD District 3 seat for incumbent Dan Micciche. I also feel like I’ll be calling Mark Clayton the victor for seat 9 very soon as well.
8:20 p.m. Fifty-five precincts of 936 so far, and the needles haven’t moved much, if at all. City Council Seat 4 has Carolyn Arnold inching up to 50 percent, getting 891 of 1,794 votes counted so far. Rick Callahan has lost a little ground in council seat 5, now at 69 percent of the vote. In seat 8, only 100 votes separate current leader Dianne Gibson and Gail Terrell. Mark Clayton (Seat 9) will (I predict) continue to trounce nearest competitor Darren Boruff. I also predict a runoff for seat 10, between Paul Reyes and Adam McGough, separated by only 73 votes so far. In DISD, District 10 and 3 are still slowly reporting, but with three precincts reporting in District 1, Edwin Flores has widened his lead over Kyle Renard with 539 more votes, or 58 percent of the vote.
7:50 p.m. Just noticed these stats for this election. Pitiful, y’all.
- Registered Voters: 1,145,988
- Ballots Cast: 40,132
- Voter Turnout: 3.50 %
7:43 p.m. While we wait for the rest of the returns to come in from today’s voting, any surprises? Less than 200 votes separate Bernadette Nutall and Damarcus Offord in DISD District 9. Some see this school board election as a referendum on Mike Miles (just like the city council races are being seen as a quasi-vote on the Trinity Toll Road). Even if Nutall maintains her lead, if it’s this small, does she have to consider her position on Miles?
Chime in while we wait!
7:10 p.m. And we’re off. Early voting returns are rolling in. In the case of districts with more than three candidates, we will post the top two candidates.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings 76 percent, 14,486 votes
Marcos Ronquillo, 24 percent, 4,609 votes
City Council Seat 3 Casey Thomas II, 40 percent, 685 votes
Joe Tave, 27 percent, 463 votes
City Council Seat 4 Carolyn King Arnold, 49 percent, 750 votes
Carl Hays, 13 percent, 201 votes
Sandra Crenshaw, 13 percent, 207 votes
City Council Seat 5 Rick Callahan, 71 percent, 550 votes
Sherry Cordova, 24 percent, 183 votes
City Council Seat 6 Monica Alonzo, 83 percent, 476 votes
Daniel “DC” Caldwell, 11 percent, 62 votes
City Council Seat 7 Tiffinni A. Young, 45 percent, 804 votes
Baranda J. Fermin, 14 percent, 240 votes
City Council Seat 8 Dianne Gibson, 33 percent, 399 votes
Gail Terrell, 24 percent, 296 votes
City Council Seat 9 Mark Clayton, 59 percent, 1,565 votes
Darren Boruff, 27 percent, 667 votes
City Council Seat 10 Paul Reyes, 40 percent, 1,061 votes
Adam McGough, 38 percent, 988 votes
DISD Trustee District 1 Edwin Flores, 57 percent, 1,761 votes
Kyle Renard, 43 percent, 1,302 votes
DISD Trustee District 3 Dan Micciche, 73 percent, 1,563 votes
David Lewis, 27 percent, 569 votes
DISD Trustee District 9 Bernadette Nutall, 54 percent, 1,180 votes
Damarcus Offord, 46 percent, 1,005 votes
7 p.m. Polls have closed. In a few minutes, returns will start coming in, starting with early voting.
6:30 p.m. You have 30 minutes to vote.
Want to see what some of the candidates were up to today? Catch up on Twitter or Facebook:
Mark Clayton, Philip Kingston, Damarcus Offord, James White, Marcos Ronquillo, Edwin Flores, Kyle Renard, Dan Micciche, Joe Tave, and Monica Alonzo.
5:45 p.m. I’m back home. I’ve been all over the city today, talking to supporters and getting an idea of turnout for Election Day. Guys, you have about an hour to get to your polling place. Scroll down, and we’ve provided links to find out where you should vote. I’ve seen some of you wait in a 10 plus deep line at Target for Lilly Pulitzer, so no whining about how voting is inconvenient. This takes less time, and in most locations you can have curbside parking!
I will admit – I got busy talking at one polling location and actually forgot to check voting totals. But I have a really good reason – I got to have a nice, long, impromptu town hall with some Damarcus Offord and Bernadette Nutall supporters over at Park South YMCA. These folks – even though they disagree about many things – even managed to find common ground when it came to the subject of testing. It was raining during the conversation, but immediately after we all agreed high-stakes testing was a mistake, the heavens parted and it quit raining for exactly 3 minutes. I may have even heard angels sing.
My last stop of the day was Cochran Elementary, where 22 people had voted by 1:30 p.m.
While I was out, I took this picture at Lochwood Library. East Dallas/Lakewood has a lot to choose from.
And this is just some of the hearty band of supporters that turned out for their candidates at Park South YMCA.
4:40 p.m. Candy here showing you how quiet Dealey was this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. when I voted. At least I found a place to park!
3:00 p.m. Dodging a few rain drops, but nothing frightening. If you’re looking for your school board candidates, I’m hearing that some have taken a break from campaigning to attend the funeral of former Dallas County school board member Jan Woody tomorrow. Woody, coincidentally, held the DCS board seat currently held by DISD district 1 candidate Kyle Renard.
Some more voting totals:
Lochwood Library: 113 at 1:30
Gill Elementary: 67 at 1:30
Northridge Presbyterian: 272 at 1:35, per superstar realtor Heather Guild.
DeGoyler Elementary: 84 at 2, thanks to Louisa Meyer.
Withers Elementary: 135 at 3:30
1:40 p.m. Some voting totals so far today, as I head out to check out the rest of the district:
Nathan Adams: 52 as of 11:30
Addison Fire Station: 120 as of noon
Foster Elementary: 18 as of 12:28
Kramer Elementary: 73 as of 1:30
Northaven UMC: 34 as of 1:30
11:57 a.m. USGS says that rattler from earlier was a 2.7 in Farmers Branch. Is it bad that I’m getting good at prognosticating the severity of an earthquake?
11:25 a.m. Are you afraid of some rain? I sure hope not. After early voting, 35,000 registered voters in Dallas County had voted. Many think that since this isn’t a presidential election, their vote isn’t important. To that, I say bullhockey, and if you’re reading this and thinking that, well, you’re wrong. Local elections are probably the most important voting you will ever do, because it impacts things you see immediately. Property taxes. School reform. Infrastructure (better existing roads vs. new ones). You may think a presidential election is sexier, but to me, there is nothing sexier than being able to flush my toilet and put my money towards beautifying my home instead of new tires and suspension. I’m about to head out and check voting numbers at a few polling places (because let’s face it, the heavier lifting is this evening), and I may repeat this several times, in successively crankier fashion. Go vote.
11:10 a.m. Oh hey, earthquake.
11:00 a.m. If you still need a quick primer or don’t know where to go vote, you can look here, here, here, here, here, and here. Last night, James White, who is running for city council in District 10, told me he would be making the rounds at polling places bright and early, and many other candidates will either be at polling places or walking the block in attempts to rouse last-minute votes. Lochwood resident Michael Mason said that when he went to vote this morning around 9, he was the 13th voter at Martha T. Reilly Elementary.
