(Seguin) — Some voters in Guadalupe County will be heading to the polls today to participate in runoff elections being held in the cities of Seguin, Cibolo and Schertz. The ruoff elections are all be conducted by the Guadalupe County Elections Office, and feature races where no candidate managed to get more than 50 percent of the votes cast during the November general election.
Guadalupe County Elections Administrator Lisa Hayes says these are runoff elections, and that means not every voter in the county will be eligible to participate in these races.
“The main thing that the voters need to know is the runoff is only for voters who live in city of Seguin District 8 — if they’re voting on this side of the county. Of course on the west side of the county, we have city of Cibolo and city of Schertz (voting as well),” said Hayes.
The race in the city of Seguin features candidates Bill Keller and Edward “Eddie” Davila Jr., who are both vying for the District 8 seat on the Seguin City Council. The city of Seguin has single-member districts for its city council positions. Hayes says that means that only voters who live within the District 8 boundaries will be eligible to vote in this race.
“We’ve had quite a few voters coming in to vote, and then you know they’re not actually in that district. So it’s amazing and great that voters are trying to come in and vote. It’s just helpful if they’re in the district that’s having the voting. But I really appreciate them coming in and checking to see if they’re eligible,” said Hayes.
Hayes says because the local election is limited to only District 8 voters in the city Seguin, she says folks will notice there are fewer polling locations open today.
“Because this is a runoff, it’s structured a little bit differently. So there’s only two Election Day voting locations for the voters to vote in this runoff election in the city of Seguin. And that’s going to be the Silver Center and the JP One office. So those are their only two Election Day options, and they can vote at either one. The hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but those are the only options. So they don’t have, you know, 34 Election Day locations to choose from, like we normally do in November. So that’s the main difference,” said Hayes.
Voting is avaiable to all voters today in the cities Schertz and Cibolo. Both cities are choosing their next mayors. There will also a runoff race for the Place 2 position on the Schertz City Council.
In Schertz, the mayoral candidates include Cedric Edwards and Ralph Gutierrez, while candidates Tiffany Gibson and Michelle Watson are running for the available city council seat. The mayor’s race in Cibolo features a runoff campaign between Mark Allen and Summer Marie Brown.
Hayes says, much like Seguin, voters in Schertz and Cibolo will also have limits to their polling locations today.
“On the west end (of Guadalupe County) they have the Schertz Annex is going to be (the polling location) for the city of Schertz, and Cibolo Fire Station No. 2 is going to be the (voting location) for city of Cibolo voters. Everybody’s going to have to go to their specific location. So it’s a little bit different. It’s more like back when we did precinct-based voting before we went to vote centers. But that’s just for the runoff. When we get back to November, we’ll go back to our vote center scenario, and everything will be back to normal,” said Hayes.
The pollling locations are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Radio station KWED will have live election coverage shortly after the polls close at 7 p.m. You can listen on AM 1580 KWED, or online at seguintoday.com.