The next Dallas City Council member representing District 11 may only be determined by 4.7 percent of voters.
Only 1,961 of 41,428 registered voters in the district headed to the polls when Lee Kleinman and Ori Raphael battled for the council seat in 2015. In Preston Hollow alone, 776 of 11,132 voters cast a ballot.
Dallas has suffered from voter apathy for decades, so these numbers may not seem shocking. The municipal election that garnered the most attention was a special election in 2002 featuring Laura Miller. Roughly 21.7 percent of registered voters showed up, but that number has rapidly declined since then. In 2015, Dallas had the lowest voter turnout to a mayoral election of any major U.S. city, according to the Dallas Observer.
This means that the adage “every vote counts” holds true, especially since even three ballots could make or break a candidate.
Although history has proven otherwise, several major issues — from the police and fire pension fund crisis to the Trinity River project — could be an incentive for Dallas residents to participate in the election on Saturday, May 6.
If you’re unfamiliar with the candidates running for Dallas City Council, we reached out to incumbent Lee Kleinman and newcomer Candy Evans to discuss their priorities and motivation behind running for office. We also created a cheat sheet for the Dallas ISD board election.
