Political Gumbo: Vote Centers, Election Count and the Races

The county clearly was not ready to run city elections. New laws forcing cities to hand over their elections to increase voter turnout led to nightmares on election night.

Not sure who had the idea that after early voting, there should be fewer voting centers. Massive fail.

However, the machines seemed to work smoothly. It did not take long once I got my ballot.

Local Control: The days of City Clerk Mark Jomsky running the vote count are over. However, next election city officials should open Council Chambers, not for a full week while the votes are counted. Keep it open till 11 p.m. on Election Day.

More on Voting: Yes they’re still counting, but locally it looks like it is pretty much over.

Mayoral Race: Mayor Terry Tornek and Victor Gordo will be hooking up again in November for the head-to-head battle for the real race for Mayor. Not sure if a continuous campaign here by either would be a good thing or a bad thing. I wonder how many forums there are going to be.

Prediction: Gordo and Tornek will each receive at least one public endorsement from a sitting councilperson. If memory serves, no councilmember publicly endorsed when Tornek, then a sitting councilmember, and then-fellow councilperson Jacque Robinson competed for the Mayor’s chair in 2015.

City Council Races: Yes, I expected to see runoffs in District 2 and 4. District 6 pretty much right now is playing out how I expected with Madison winning re-election.

District 2: Play it any way you like, Felicia Williams was one of the most qualified candidates to come down the pike in a long time. I wonder if developers have already started calling her. In this town? Of course not.

More District 2: There will be a woman on the council in District 2, oh wait… there already… nevermind.

District 4: Wow, who knew?

District 6: There seemed to be confusion after I said last week that if Tamerlin Godley was going to force a runoff, she would need more votes from Ryan Bell. No, I did not mean he could give her votes, I meant the two of them needed to combine for a bigger percentage of the vote.

The candidates can pick who they like: It would be good to see Ryan Bell on a committee or a commission. Char Bland already serves. Hopefully, she continues to.

Up Next: School District Elections.