Smith County Election Results

TYLER — Two elections in Smith County may hinge on as-yet uncounted ballots. Elections Administrator Karen Nelson says these fall into two categories. One is provisional ballots — ones that were cast even though an individual’s eligibility to vote was in question. Nelson says there are 77 such ballots in the county. The other category is overseas military ballots; Nelson says about 100 of those are still out. One of the elections involves the Tyler ISD bond proposal; the other will determine whether beer and wine can be purchased for off-premise consumption in J.P. Precinct 4. Both measures were behind when all regular ballots had been counted — but by razor-thin margins, with the votes split virtually down the middle.

Nelson says officials have begun processing the provisional ballots to determine, first, how many will be ruled valid. Then officials will count the valid votes, if there are any. Nelson hopes to have the provisional ballots processed and counted by early Thursday afternoon. The deadline for receiving overseas military ballots is Monday, November 8, at 5 p.m. Nelson says officials have until November 10 to count those ballots, and she hopes to have it done by late afternoon on November 9. The canvassing period is November 10-15. Nothing becomes official at least until the canvassing is done — and challenges or recounts could always come into play. KTBB will keep you posted on how things turn out.

TISD board president Ron Vickery said regardless of the outcome, he’s pleased with the heavy voter turnout. If the bond issue passes, Vickery said the school district will move forward with plans for three new schools. In recent days, some opposition has emerged to the proposal for a new Rice Elementary School based on concerns about possibly moving the campus. Vickery says a key piece of any plans for Rice will be setting up public forums in order to get questions about the school’s future answered as quickly as possible. If the proposal loses, Vickery says school district officials will try to “put together a proposal and do it at a time and in a manner that we hopefully will have some wide community input on and support on.” According to Vickery, bond opponents seem to agree that TISD has facility needs, but there’s been disagreement about “what the plan should look like.”

Other local races were decided early. Both Bullard and Whitehouse will allow mixed beverages in restaurants, but neither will allow beer and wine to be bought in stores for off-premise consumption. Also, State Representative Leo Berman and District Attorney Matt Bingham cruised to easy victories; other area Republican hopefuls appeared on the way to similar wins.