Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Early voting results have given an indication of who may emerge as victors in hotly contested Granbury School Board and Granbury City Council races.
Two county races were on the ballot, as were contests for the Tolar City Council and the Tolar School Board.
Republican County Clerk Katie Lang appeared headed for victory as did Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle, also a Republican. Both faced Democratic challengers.
Those leading in the GISD races were Billy Wimberly (Place 5), incumbent and school board president Barbara Townsend (Place 6), and Karen Lowery, who challenged Place 7 incumbent Paula McDonald.
Granbury Mayor Jim Jarratt was more than 400 votes ahead of challenger and former councilman Tony Mobly, while Place 2 incumbent Eddie Rodriquez had a sizable lead over opponent Pat Abell.
During the two-week early voting period, 14,880 ballots were cast, representing about 31% of Hood County’s 48,789 registered voters.
In the GISD races, Wimberly led in a three-man race for the seat vacated by Mark Jackson, scoring 5,986, or 51.71%, of the early voting ballots cast. John Mark Graves netted 2,087 votes (18.03%) and Terry Louvin received 3,502 votes (30.25%).
Townsend emerged from the gate with a strong lead over challenger Jeff Hastings, the GISD’s former chief of security, with 7,514 votes to Hastings’ 4,249, which was a 63.88%/36.12% divide.
Lowery outpaced McDonald with an almost 14% lead in early voting. The numbers were 6,638 (56.95%) for Lowery and 5,017 (43.05%) for McDonald.
Jarratt, seated through a special election in June 2021, won 57.48% of the early vote, while Mobly received 42.52%. They received 1,580 and 1,169 votes, respectively.
The numbers in the Place 2 race were 1,931 (72.87%) for Rodriquez and 719 (27.13%) for Abell.
COUNTY RACES
In the county clerk race, Lang scored 11,704 votes (80.55%) to Harold Granek’s 2,827 (19.45%).
In the Precinct 4 commissioner contest, Eagle was handed 2,399 votes (75.11%) while the number for Wood was 795 (24.89%).
TOLAR
In the race to replace outgoing longtime mayor Terry Johnson, Matt Hutsell led with 50 votes (59.52%) to Don Ives’ 34 votes (40.48%).
For the Place 4 seat, Brian Gall had the advantage over Kacy Brown, with 52 votes (64.20%) to Brown’s 29 (35.80%).
One seat, Place 7, was on the ballot for the Tolar School Board. Incumbent Justin Deaver led in a three-person race against Wayne Wienecke and Kimberly Miller.
Deaver’s early voting tally was 234 (56.39%) while Wienecke’s was 118 (28.43%) and Miller’s was 63 (15.18%).
