The closest election of this cycle has been decided, for now.
State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, has defeated Republican challenger Dan Neil for state representative in District 48 by 16 votes.
The count came after Travis County officials tallied all provisional and overseas ballots, which were due to the county clerk’s office [Monday] evening.
On Nov. 2, Howard outpaced Neil by 15 votes. The Travis County Clerk’s Office said tonight that 58 additional votes were counted since election day.
Howard won with 25,026 votes, or 48.54 percent, to Neil’s 25,010, or 48.51 percent. Libertarian Ben Easton received 1,518 votes, 2.94 percent. A total of 51,554 ballots were counted.
There are still some formalities to be observed, and Neil will have until the end of them to request a recount. As noted before, that is unlikely to amount to anything. An election contest is also possible, but as I have not heard any complaints so far about irregularities, that seems a bit more remote. But I wouldn’t be too surprised by that, either. We won’t have truly final results for some time yet.
This is one of those elections where hell yes, my vote counted!
The sad thing is, had Rep. Howard compromised her principles and changed parties (say, like our governor did years ago), she would have wom by a comfortable margin. It is time to do away with casting an all Republican or all Democratic ballot. Neither party has a lock on the best candidates or the best policy positions! I am so glad that Donna Howard is my state rep.