Cities across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex have opened polls for early voting today as candidates for councils, boards, and mayorships petition for support.
Poll times will vary throughout the early voting period, with locations open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from April 24–29. On Sunday, April 30, the time will be reduced to only 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The last two days of early voting, May 1–2, will see locations open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Election Day itself will be on Saturday, May 6, with polls remaining open until 7 p.m.
Dallas County voters can check their eligibility and review a sample ballot on the Dallas County Elections Department website.
Most of the surrounding cities share a similar schedule. Early voting locations for Dallas County can be found through the county elections department.
Local elections often have historically low participation levels, meaning that a small minority of people ultimately pick the candidates who will run local institutions.
For example, when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson defeated Scott Griggs in a runoff election in 2019, Johnson earned 41,247 votes to Griggs’ 32,918 — a difference of only 8,329. Out of a city of roughly 1.3 million people, only 5.7% participated in the election. Johnson won by a margin of less than 1% of the city’s population.
The participation levels in city council elections are even smaller, with the margins of victories razor-thin. In 2021, Council Member Jesse Moreno won by only 420 votes, while Carolyn King Arnold only received 268 votes more than her challenger.
Various candidates shared voting information as the polls opened, encouraging people to participate and appealing for support.
“Early voting starts today!” incumbent Dallas City Council Member Chad West (District 1) tweeted.
District 11 challenger Candace “Candy” Evans shared the night before that the “Neighborhoods of District 11 are ready to get serious about crime and homelessness and turn Valley View from looking like a war zone to an actual development.”
“Early voting starts tomorrow and you can make a change!” she added.
Evans is running to oust incumbent Council Member Jaynie Schultz and has received the endorsement of the Dallas Police Association (DPA).
Dallas’ mayoral race is unique as incumbent Eric Johnson is running unopposed on the ballot, which has not happened since the similarly named Erik Jonsson ran unopposed in 1967.
Other mayoral hopefuls failed to meet certain requirements to be placed on the ballot, leading one, Jrmar Jefferson, to sue City Secretary Bilierae Johnson for allegedly disqualifying him wrongfully, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer is also running unopposed, but Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker is facing four challengers.
In most cases, if no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote by election day, the race will see a runoff election between the top two candidates. The runoffs for the Dallas elections will occur on June 10.