Josh Acevedo outperformed Verónica Carbajal for the District 2 city council seat. Leading with about 180 votes during the early voting period, Acevedo increased his lead to 307 votes on Election Day, winning the seat 56% to 44%. The voter turnout was 2,748 (5.74%) of the registered voters in District 2.
The turnout for the December 9, 2023 election where Acevedo and Carbajal were being challenged by Judy Gutierrez and Ben Mendoza was 2,179 (4.56%). In December, Carbajal led the night with six votes, overcoming her deficit during the early voting period.
Yesterday’s election outperformed the voter turnout of December by 605 voters with many of them being infrequent voters who were driven to vote by Acevedo’s and Carbajal’s canvassing. The voters were motivated by the candidates to cast a ballot they seldom do.
During the December contest, 1,125 ballots were cast during the early voting period. On Election Day in December, 1,054 voters voted at the polls. Of the total ballots cast in December, 94% were cast during the early voting period.
In contrast, last night’s election saw 1,495 voters vote during the early voting period with 1,253 voting yesterday. More voters – 16% – turned out on Election Day than in December. Both campaigns effectively drove their supporters to the polls on Election Day, with Acevedo’s campaign outperforming Carbajal in early voting and on Election Day.
As we reported last night, an unexpected factor in the race were voters who voted in Alexsandra Annello’s two campaigns, Election Day and the runoff, in 2020. The voters who cast a vote in 2020, overwhelmingly showed up at the polls in the latest contest. Only 60% of those who voted in December voted during the early voting period in this election.
An El Paso News analysis of voter data shows that Proposition K did not seem to play a role in yesterday’s results. Once the County Election’s Department makes the voting data available, we will add yesterday’s voters to our model and report the results.
Acevedo, who will be sworn in on January 29, will have to win a second election in November to keep the seat. The unexpired term he is filling ends in January 2025. This is the second election Carbajal loses after almost defeating Dee Margo for the second spot in the mayoral election of November 17, 2020. In that contest, Carbajal received 47,299 votes, trailing second place Dee Margo by 6,307 votes where 217,484 votes were cast. Carbajal has since struggled to attract voters.
Carbajal has not announced any future political aspirations after yesterday’s loss, but she has been rumored for a while now that she wants to run for mayor later this year.
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