Our most alert of FrontBurnervians sends over the second-to-last voting update before the big show on May 4. Dallas voters had a nice showing on Sunday, making up almost 22 percent of votes during the April 22-30 early period. But total voter participation, both in-person and mail-in, is sitting at 5.73 percent. That’s 35,057 total votes.
In 2015, when Mayor Mike Rawlings won reelection over Marcos Ronquillo, just 6 percent of registered Dallasites voted. That was 42,087 total. But let’s look at 2011, when all the candidates were fresh. There were 69,537 total votes cast on Election Day and in early voting. Of those, 25,919 came during early voting. So we’re at least improving there. But we need to do some work to get into the 10 percent range. Which would still put us between, oh, Palm Beach County Zone 6’s 10 percent and San Antonio’s 11 percent. That’s still bottom of the barrel.
Some shouts: District 13’s turnout is 11.57 percent, certainly buoyed by the heated race between incumbent Jennifer Staubach Gates and former Mayor Laura Miller. The worst showing is Adam Medrano’s District 2, which includes Oak Lawn and Deep Ellum, at 2.72 percent, or 1,315 votes. District 5 has had the fewest go to the poll, at 845, a turnout rate that is barely better than D2 at 2.79 percent. Scott Griggs’ North Oak Cliff District 1 sports a 6.72 percent rate, or 2,490 votes, and Philip Kingston’s downtown and Uptown and East Dallas pocket is at 5.51 percent, or 3,959 votes.
You have just under three hours from when I type this to go to the polls. (They close at 7 p.m.) Here is where to find your location. Go after work! Especially if you’re already in downtown. The J. Erik Jonsson Central Library makes it really easy to park and run in. (Caveat remains for D12, which includes parts of Collin and Denton County and makes it difficult to parse.)
