The Dallas County Elections Office has a Web site that shows election results from Tuesday’s runoffs. The results are, of course divided into sections, one for the Democrats and one for the Republicans, and each party’s section includes a tab that displays voter turnout.
A quick check shows that despite record turnout by Democrats for the March 4 primary, turnout in both parties yesterday for the runoff was, in a word, dismal. I didn’t take the time to add up all the numbers from every precinct, but a quick scan indicated that turnout overall was about 1 percent for Democrats, and a teensy bit higher for Republicans, who were lured to the polls by the runoff between Lowell Cannaday and Jim Bowles in the sheriff’s race.
The color-coded precinct map on the Web site indicated that 8 Republican precincts broke the 10 percent level, and a couple even managed to go higher than 14 percent. Precinct 1703R-5128 had the highest turnout for the GOP, with 382 of 2,623 registered voters — or 14.56 percent — actually casting a ballot.
The Dems weren’t so lucky. Turnout in most of their precincts hovered at or below 1 percent and none broke the 10 percent level except for one: Precinct 5422-D-6625 had 100 percent turnout in the runoff. 100 percent! Of course, only two Democrats are registered voters in that Far West Dallas County precinct. But kudos to them both for going to the polls!
