All Provisional and Mail-In Ballots Counted: Will the Police Chief Runoff Election Happen?

SAN ANGELO, Texas — There were 82 ballots, both mail-in and provisional, that needed to be cured before counting in the May 4, 2024, City of San Angelo police chief election. Today, election judges made their final count, and only 18 of those ballots were valid, the Tom Green County Elections Office announced Monday afternoon.

The race was close enough where provisional and late mail-in ballots mattered. Candidate Lt. Mike Hernandez was sitting at 3,279 votes, or 49.5%, and Sgt. Travis Griffith was at 46.5%. If enough of the provisional and mail-in ballots were cast for Hernandez—enough to give the frontrunner 50% of the vote plus one more vote—there would be no need for a runoff election scheduled for June 15, 2024. It was a long shot, as Hernandez would need to win about 75 of the 82 outstanding votes, assuming some votes would go towards Griffith or the minor third candidate, Lt. Chris Cimino.

After the smoke cleared at the elections office around 11 a.m. this morning, only eight of the 44 mail-in ballots could be verified. Elections Supervisor Vona Hudson referenced new laws passed by the Texas Legislature requiring an identification number from, for example, a Texas driver's license, a Social Security number, a Texas Election ID Certificate, or a Texas personal ID card to be properly marked on the ballot. If no identification was given, or a bogus ID number was marked on the ballot envelope, then the ballot could not be counted. This is in addition to the traditional signature verification procedures.

Only 10 of the 38 provisional ballots were cured. Provisional ballots are issued when the voter shows up at the voting center, but the computer claims the voter already requested a ballot by mail. Or, the voter's address was outside the city limits, but the voter informs the election worker that they had moved to an address inside the city limits. Or, the ballot is unintelligible, such as a mail-in ballot voted for more than one candidate.

Out of 82 ballots remaining to be counted, only 18 were cured, Hudson said. She noted this seemed like a fairly normal number of ballots in question after an election with 6,639 ballots cast.

The unofficial final count is published on the Tom Green County website. Here is how the count changed:

The San Angelo City Council will canvass the final results and make them official on Wednesday, May 15. Provided the council approves the election results, it will consider a resolution ordering a runoff election for June 15, 2024, "for the purpose of electing a police chief," stated the agenda.

The agenda posted today noted that council will allow public comments at the beginning of the canvassing.  Jackie Chesnutt, this is your cue.

Other articles of interest:

• Poll: Griffith May Force a Runoff
• Griffith May Not Get His Runoff Election
• Griffith's Wife Lands Campaign in Hot Water with San Angelo ISD
• Read the Electioneering Email Griffith's Wife Sent to Colleagues
• Griffith Had Poor Test Score on Promotion Test