After a second recount for the District 1 School Board seat for Lubbock Independent School District, the Lubbock County Elections Office issued a report with updated vote totals Monday night.
Prior to the recount, Mario Ybarra had received 747 votes and Lala Oralia Chavez had received 745.
“After counting everything that was eligible to be counted, the board discovered we had a 747-747 race in District 1 for LISD,” elections administrator Dorothy Kennedy said.
After the second recount, the elections office confirmed that both candidates did receive 747 votes.
The elections office released a report report Friday evening, indicating that the candidates had tied, which led to the second recount.
Kennedy said two votes had not been initially tabulated for Chavez on election day.
“One was a mail ballot, and one was a provisional ballot,” Kennedy explained Monday afternoon.
“So now… move into a second election. It’s not called a runoff under the Texas Election Code it’s called a second election. So we will move forward and LISD board will meet on Friday morning at 7:00 or 7:30. The second election will have early voting, nine days of early voting, and then election day,” said Kennedy late Monday night.
“We are still tied, and we are still weighing our options within the next couple of days,” Ybarra said after the recount. “Thanks to the voters, tonight’s process shows that every vote does count.”
Chavez said she would continue to fight for the seat, adding that she did not want to settle for a coin flip, but rather allow the voters to decide.
“We are pleased with the result,” Chavez said. “Our students, our kids don’t deserve a coin toss. I think their education and their future lies further and it’s up to us to make sure they get the best.”
“There are two options. One- what’s called an automatic second election. Not a runoff, it’s just called a second election. We go into that unless both candidates can agree to do a tie-vote agreement,” Kennedy explained. The candidates could agree to “flip a coin, draw straws, roll dice, high-card draw with a deck of cards.”
Kennedy said this case was the second time in recent memory that a race led to a tied vote.
“We saw it in the City of Wolfforth a few years ago,” she said. The second and third candidates were both at a tie. They actually agreed to flip a coin.”
“More and more we are seeing it across the state and the nation, because so few people are voting in the local elections, it really is imperative and every vote really does count,” she added.
Kennedy said the election would likely be scheduled sometime around June 7, but added the official date had not been formally set.
Kennedy said she did not have a cost estimate for a second election, but did say the funds would be pulled from LISD’s budget, using taxpayer dollars.
“We’ve got to work out the variables of how many early voting locations, how many election day locations, and that kind of thing. Once we hear back, we’ll be able to make those decisions,” she said.