Move to November increases voter turnout, Plum Creek vital to election success

Election numbers released earlier this week reveal two interesting facts. First, election turnout was higher this year, when the election was held in November, than last, when it was in May. Second, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to win an election in which Plum Creek voters are eligible to cast ballots without winning in that subdivision.

It’s open to debate whether moving the Kyle City Council elections from May to November for the first time this year is the actual reason for increased voter participation in 2017, but the cold hard facts reveal that the number of registered voters in the five precincts located entirely within Kyle increased by only 280 from May 2016 to this election, but the number of actual voters increased by 522.

Still, that’s not really all that much to brag about. That translated into 8.9 percent of the registered voters casting ballots in the most recent election, but that is a significant increase over the 6 percent who voted in the May 2016 election.

The precinct-by-precinct turnout numbers released by Hays County earlier this week also revealed the importance of winning the support of Plum Creek residents: Precinct 221, which is basically Plum Creek, accounted for 29.6 percent of all the votes cast in this most recent election. In the mayor’s race, winner Travis Mitchell collected a whopping 72.3 percent of the Plum Creek votes. In the Silverado/downtown area, by contrast, he won only 39.7 percent, but that area accounted for only 14.7 of the total votes cast, less than half that of Plum Creek. Mitchell won the race by collecting 58.6 percent of the vote citywide.

Plum Creek also was significant in the District 1 special election won by Dex Ellison over Marco Pizana. While Ellison won citywide with 53.7 percent of the vote, he won the Plum Creek precinct with 67.4 percent. By contrast, Pizana won Silverado/downtown with 68.9 percent, but, again that’s not where the voters are.

The precinct with the highest percent turnout, although the lowest number of voters, is Hometown Kyle where 13.83 percent of the voters turned out. Interestingly, Hometown Kyle resident Alex Villalobos, who was on the ballot for District 4, won that precinct by only one vote. On the other hand, Villalobos won the important Plum Creek precinct, which is the home of the candidate, Tim McHutchion, he defeated in the election, with 52 percent of the vote and the Silverado/downtown area with a comfortable 74.7 percent of the vote, However, to emphasize the importance of winning in Plum Creek, Villalobos collected 82 more votes in Plum Creek than he did in Silverado/downtown and those 82 votes accounted for 85.5 percent of his total margin of victory.

The precincts with the most voters, Precinct 129 (Amberwood/Steeplechase) and Precinct 127 (Waterleaf/Southeast Kyle) had voter turnouts of only 6.94 percent 6.25 percent respectively.