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Local election polls see low turnout
The Colorado County Elections Office released the unofficial results for the May 2 Local Elections late Saturday night, May 2.
Voter turnout across the elections barely reached 20%, but the low number is standard for local elections. Eagle Lake voters showed up slightly more at 21.01% (386 votes out of 1,837), but Rice Consolidated Independent School District and Weimar voters fell shorter at 13.67% (816 votes out of 5,971) and 16.24% (210 votes out of 1,293) respectively.
Eagle Lake
Out of the 386 votes, voters cast around an equal number of ballots during early voting versus on Election Day (182–188).
Anthony Johnson defeated Robert “Bob” Craig to become the next mayor of Eagle Lake after receiving 70.47% of the vote (272 votes) compared to Craig’s 27.98% (108 votes). Johnson will be Eagle Lake’s first Black mayor. Read more in the summer issue of Colorado County Insider coming June 24.
Abel “Billy” Sosa (235 votes, 30.44%) and Amy Maxwell (189 votes, 24.48%) edged out Randy Turner (132 votes, 17.10%) for the two available city council positions.
Weimar
Out of the 210 votes, 107 voters cast their ballots during early voting, and 87 more did so on Election Day.
Clayton Langhoff beat Christina Behrens for Weimar City Council Place 4 Council Member. Langhoff edged ahead 55.71% (117 votes) vs. 44.29% (93 votes).
Tucker Carlson ran unopposed for Weimar’s mayorship and received 89.05% (187) of the votes. Kyle Christen ran unopposed for Weimar City Council Place 2 Council Member and received 86.67% of the vote (182).
107 voters cast their ballots during early voting, and 87 more did so on Election Day.
Rice Consolidated Independent School District Out of the 816 votes, slightly more voters cast their ballots on Election Day with a count of 420 compared to the 355 cast during early voting.
Chris Schiurring defeated Erik Thormaehlen for Rice CISD Position 6 Board of Trustees with an even 67% of the vote (406) vs. Thormaehlen’s 26.24% (159).
Jenny Rodgers ran unopposed for RCISD Position 7 Board of Trustees and received 80.53% of votes (488 votes).
A precinct-by-precinct breakdown of the votes is available on the Colorado County Elections website: https://www.co.colorado.tx.us/page/colorado.Elections
Election Feedback Col o r ado Cou nt y switched completely over to countywide voting with this election after a test run for the March primaries. As a result, the county is required to submit a report to the state with community input and feedback about the new method. The county is accepting feedback primarily through a form found on their website or via written letter.
The feedback form lists seven questions: five questions ask participants to rate different parts of the voting experience from one to ten; the sixth question asks for the participant’s polling location; and the last question asks if the participant would like to be contacted further. The form should take less than two to three minutes to complete.
