We all know the results, but how did the election go? What does it tell us, and what is its meaning?
We cannot know all of the answers to these questions yet, but the unofficial results yield some surprising clues. This will be the first of several detailed looks at the data from the May 2025 local election. You can read the unofficial election results here.
Election Performance
Out of 66,127 registered voters in Tom Green County, 11,081 voters turned out to vote in the May 3 election – 16.75%.
That is fairly close to voter turnout in the May 4, 2024 local election which had 16.24% turnout. 8,529 voters, out of 52,495 registered, voted in that election.
While the total number of votes increased, so did the number of registered voters over 2024. The bond elections also drew more people to the polls since those elections will impact local property tax rates.
Comparing The Big Three
But what do the returns tell us? We can get a better picture by comparing the three big races to each other – Mayor, Coliseum Bond and School Bond.
Mayor
| CANDIDATE | EARLY VOTE | ELECTION DAY | TOTAL | PERCENTAGE |
| Gary Jenkins | 955 | 747 | 1,702 | 17.21% |
| Trinidid Aguirre | 1,245 | 1,158 | 2,403 | 24.30% |
| Josh Burleson | 162 | 131 | 293 | 2.96% |
| Tom Thompson | 2,981 | 2,106 | 5,087 | 51.45% |
| Juan Acevedo | 202 | 201 | 403 | 4.08% |
| Total | 5,545 | 4343 | 9,888 | 100% |
Coliseum Bond
| PROP. A | EARLY VOTE | ELECTION DAY | VOTE | PERCENTAGE |
| FOR | 3157 | 2,271 | 5,428 | 53.04% |
| AGAINST | 2569 | 2237 | 4,806 | 46.96% |
| Total | 5,726 | 4508 | 10,234 | 100% |
SAISD Bond
| PROP. A | EARLY VOTING | ELECTION DAY | VOTES | PERCENTAGE |
| FOR | 3,313 | 2,291 | 5,604 | 54.31% |
| AGAINST | 2,463 | 2,252 | 4,715 | 45.69% |
| TOTAL | 5776 | 4,543 | 10,319 | 100% |
School Bond Election Drew Most Voters
The first thing we see is that the school bond drew more votes than either the Coliseum Bond or the Mayor’s race with a total of 10,319. The Coliseum Bond garnered 10,234 while the Mayor’s race polled 9,888.
This tells us that the future of our public schools was the biggest motivation for voting this election.
While Tom Thompson for Mayor had the biggest win, against a field of four candidates. the school bond came in with a landslide victory, winning by 9.88 points. The Coliseum bond won comfortably by just over 6 points. Thompson won by 2.9 points over all four of his opponents combined.
In all three of these races more early votes were cast than on election day.
This tells us that turnout was dominated by highly motivated and engaged voters. We will not know for sure until all the data is released, but it seems there was no concerted effort to turnout people on election day, either for or against. The early vote totals set the margins early and none of them substantially changed as the night went on.
The City Council Single Member District races were the only ones to buck that trend. In both SMD 2 and 4 races, election day turnout was slightly over early voting.
City Council SMD 2
| CANDIDATE | EARLY VOTE | ELECTION DAY | VOTES | PERCENTAGE |
| Dudra Butler | 225 | 204 | 429 | 33.54% |
| John Bariou | 164 | 201 | 365 | 28.54% |
| Joe Self | 249 | 236 | 485 | 37.92% |
| Total | 638 | 641 | 1,279 | 100% |
City Council SMD 4
| CANDIDATE | EARLY VOTE | ELECTION DAY | VOTES | PERCENTAGE |
| Patrick Keely | 244 | 262 | 506 | 67.38% |
| Jamal Shumpert | 120 | 125 | 245 | 32.62% |
| Total | 364 | 387 | 751 | 100% |
There were 43 undervotes in the three way contest for SMD 2 and 70 for SMD 4. There were 188 undervotes in the Mayor’s race, compared to 23 in the Coliseum Bond and 22 in the School Bond election.
An undervote is when a voter does not vote in a particular race, but votes in other races. It is an undervote in the race skipped.
The lesson we can take from that is that this election was about the bonds. Everything else was secondary.
The trend of early voting topping election day voting continued in the SAISD Board of Trustees races.
SAISD Board of Trustees SMD 2
| CANDIDATE | EARLY VOTE | ELECTION DAY | VOTES | PERCENTAGE |
| Geneva Rodriguez | 169 | 149 | 318 | 41.79% |
| Karla Cardenas | 226 | 217 | 443 | 58.21% |
| Total | 395 | 366 | 761 | 100% |
SAISD Board of Trustees SMD 4
| CANDIDATES | EARLY VOTE | ELECTION DAY | VOTES | PERCENTAGE |
| Ami Mizell-Flint | 638 | 469 | 1,107 | 54.94% |
| Samantha Schwartz | 486 | 422 | 908 | 45.06% |
| Total | 1,124 | 891 | 2,015 | 100% |
Since no candidate won a majority in the City Council SMD 2 race, Dudra Butler and Joe Self will face each other again in a runoff election on Saturday June 7, 2025.
