The Edinburg city council canvassed the results of the Nov. 2 municipal election, making the results official and calling for a runoff election next month.
During a special city council meeting held Wednesday, the council declared the official results of the city elections held last week which only differed from the results seen on election night by one vote.
In the mayoral election, former City Manager Ramiro Garza received 3,499 votes while current Mayor Richard Molina received 3,462 votes. Former Place 2 Councilman Gilbert Enriquez received 1,081 votes.
There were a total of 8,042 votes cast in that race. There were 70 undervotes and no overvotes.
As the top vote-getters, Garza and Molina are heading to a runoff election.
In the councilmember place 1 race, Dan Diaz received the most votes with 2,327 votes. Ismael “Smiley” Martinez came in second with 2,236 votes. Both are headed to the runoff election.
Gerardo “Gerry” Lozano, who also ran for place 1, came in third with 2,223 votes. He was followed by Fern McClaugherty with 828 votes.
A total of 7,614 votes were cast in that race. There were 498 undervotes and no overvotes.
In the race for councilmember place 2, Ruben “Bubba” Palacios received the most votes with 3,109 votes. In second was Jason De Leon who received 2,376 votes.
In third was Moises Segovia who received 2,166 votes.
The Place 2 race had a total of 7,651 votes cast. There were 461 undervotes and no overvotes.
As for the charter election in which Edinburg voters weighed whether to approve a city charter amendment that will allow an elected official to be suspended if they are indicted on a felony charge, 5,640 people voted for it while 1,553 voted against it.
There were a total of 7,193 votes cast in the charter election. There were 919 undervotes but no overvotes.
Following the reading of the official results, Molina asked City Attorney Omar Ochoa to clarify whether the results could be challenged.
“Procedurally, this is a declaration of the results as they’ve been canvassed by the canvassing authority, in this instance it’s Hidalgo County because that’s who the city contracts with,” Ochoa replied. “The resolution memorializes those specific results but it does not preclude a future challenge; these are basically announcing what has been given to us by the county.”
Following that explanation, the council officially ordered a runoff election that will be held on Dec. 14. Early voting will be held from Nov. 29 through Dec. 10.
