Early voter turnout was 6% for Dallas City Council runoffs, county data shows

More than 20,000 Dallas voters have cast ballots ahead of Saturday’s runoffs to decide six City Council seats, county data shows. The tally puts voter turnout thus far at 6% — the same percentage as early turnout in the 2019 runoffs, which featured a mayoral race.

More than 326,000 Dallas voters live in the districts where council seats haven’t been decided: 2, 4, 7, 11, 13 and 14.

For comparison, in the May 1 election, around 37,000 of the city’s nearly 637,000 registered voters — also about 6% — cast early ballots in person or by mail. Fourteen council races were on the ballot then. An additional 4% of voters participated on Election Day.

In June 2019 runoffs, 6% of Dallas’ 654,000 voters cast ballots early or via mail. Overall voter turnout was 11%.

According to county data, the race with the highest early turnout is in northwest Dallas’ District 13, where 6,500 ballots have been cast. The race features real estate developer Leland Burk against Turtle Creek Conservancy chief executive Gay Donnell Willis.

About 5,200 votes have been cast in District 14, which covers parts of downtown, Uptown and Old East Dallas. Incumbent David Blewett and retired attorney and former city plan commissioner Paul Ridley are vying for that seat.

Almost 4,000 people have voted either for former Dallas City Plan Commission member Jaynie Schultz or attorney Barry Wernick in North Dallas’ District 11.

More than 1,700 votes have been cast in South Dallas’ District 7 race between incumbent Adam Bazaldua and real estate broker and former council member Kevin Felder.

In District 2, more than 1,600 people have already selected either Jesse Moreno, a restaurant owner and former city Park and Recreation board member, or Sana Syed, a real estate firm executive and former Dallas city spokesperson, to represent them. The district covers parts of downtown, North, South and Old East Dallas.

And about 1,500 voters have participated early in the race to represent District 4 in south and east Oak Cliff. Incumbent Carolyn King Arnold is facing Dallas ISD trustee Maxie Johnson.

Across all of Dallas County, about 36,000 ballots were cast early, or a turnout of some 6% of the over 585,000 affected voters, according to the county. The county has nearly 1.4 million voters total.

The county saw total runoff turnouts of nearly 10% in June 2019 and 8% in June 2017. That’s out of nearly 837,000 and 337,000 eligible voters, respectively.

In Dallas County, runoffs also are being held for Balch Springs, Carrollton, Coppell, Garland, Grand Prairie, Richardson and Seagoville council seats and the Richardson ISD school board. Fort Worth and Arlington voters will be deciding their next mayors and some council members. Allen, Frisco and Plano are among other area cities with council runoffs.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. Dallas County voters can cast ballots at any polling site.