Early voting turnout is up at the Audelia Road Branch Library voting center from the May 2024 bond election, but remains behind May elections from 2022 and 2023 following the end of the voting period.

Voting sign. Photography by Liesbeth Powers.

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According to unofficial early turnout totals from the Dallas County Elections Department, 1678 early votes have been cast at the Audelia Road Library voting center through the end of April 29, which marks the end of the early voting period. That’s up from 1,407 votes cast during early voting at the center in the 2024 special bond election and mirrors an uptick seen citywide.

However, turnout at the vote center is down from the 2023 and 2022 joint elections, when Lake Highlands residents last cast votes for candidates at the municipal and school board level. In 2023, when incumbent Council Member Kathy Stewart won her bid to replace Adam McGough, 2,632 votes were cast at the center during the early voting period. When incumbent Richardson ISD Place 5 trustee Rachel McGowan won her first election in 2022, 2,777 votes were cast at the library. 

Citywide turnout, however, is up from both the May 2022 and 2023 elections, when 43,902 and 66,979 early votes were cast, respectively (the 2022 election primarily concerned school board seats and constitutional amendments for Dallas voters, which may explain the uptick). 68,827 votes were cast in Dallas County through the early voting period this year.

The drop in turnout could potentially be explained by the candidate landscape in Lake Highlands, where residents will be voting on two races: one for RISD’s Place 5 or 4 seat, depending on where they live, and the other for the District 10 City Council seat. In District 10, incumbent Kathy Stewart is facing off against Sirrano Keith Baldeo, who garnered 1.67 percent of the vote in 2023, and L.D. Pullen, a write-in candidate. 

For voters in RISD Place 4, which represents most of north Lake Highlands and Hamilton Park, Trustee Regina Harris is running unopposed. In Place 5, incumbent Rachel McGowan is facing off against Cristina Angelina Neria, who has not reported any campaign contributions or expenses for the March-April reporting period. 

This may be the last time voters in Dallas cast ballots for city elections in May, which have historically suffered from low turnout. In November, Dallas voters approved a charter amendment which cleared the way for the city to begin the process of moving municipal elections to November to align with national elections. Two identical bills have been filed in the Texas Senate by local lawmakers to allow for the change, both of which are currently assigned to committee. 

Election day is May 3. While the Audelia Road Library may be the sole early voting center in Lake Highlands, multiple other centers will open for election day, including Lake Highlands Middle School, Forest Meadow Middle School and Hamilton Park United Methodist Church. An interactive map of voting centers complete with updated election day wait times can be found here.