McALLEN — The runoff in the District 1 special election is set for March 3, city commissioners here voted Monday.
A runoff was necessary since neither Javier Villalobos or Timothy Wilkins received more than 50 percent of the District 1 votes in the three-person race.
In the Jan. 20 election, Villalobos earned 505 votes (37 percent) compared to Wilkins’ 472 votes (35 percent). Joseph M. Caporusso, the other candidate in the race, received 28 percent of the vote.
Early voting for the March 3 runoff will run from Feb. 14 through Feb. 27.
The last contested District 1 race was also a special election that went to a runoff, following the death of former Commissioner Scott Crane. That special election was held on April 4, 2015, and the runoff was a month later on May 9, when 2,414 ballots were cast.
On Jan. 20, 1,358 of the 13,788 registered voters in District 1 cast ballots — roughly 10 percent.
Whomever wins the March 3 runoff will fill the rest of incumbent Richard Cortez’s term, which ends in May 2021. Cortez’s District 1 seat has been up for grabs since he announced his bid for Hidalgo County judge.
