Picking a Mayor on a "Slow Saturday"

We're, what, nine whole minute away from our first look at early-voting results ... like anyone cares. I spoke with Toni Pippins-Poole, Interim Dallas County Elections Administrator, earlier this afternoon, and she described the action at the polls as "so, so, slow -- about what we expected." Which is to...

By Robert Wilonsky

June 18, 2011

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We're, what, nine whole minute away from our first look at early-voting results ... like anyone cares. I spoke with Toni Pippins-Poole, Interim Dallas County Elections Administrator, earlier this afternoon, and she described the action at the polls as "so, so, slow -- about what we expected." Which is to say, maybe 10 percent; 11, if we're lucky. (When I voted at Leonides Gonzalez Cigarroa, M.D. Elementary School at noon, I was No. 90 -- surprisingly high.)

Nick was out and about and stopped by Stemmons Freeway HQ (a "relaxed atmosphere," he reports back) shortly after I spoke with Pippins-Poole. Turns out, Nick has just missed John Wiley Price, who, for some reason, finds himself at DalCo offices during Election Days these days. Says Pippins-Poole, "He wants to know how it's going," when I asked why a county commissioner's hanging around. "And then he told us the sad news," referring to Al Lipscomb's death. She says Price stops by every time they're counting ballots. "He asks us if we need food, or if there are any concerns about the elections."

Not many concerns, though: She told Nick it's been a "slow Saturday [with] not many calls. Not many people calling about where their polling location is." She blames it on Father's Day. That, and the fact it's 193 degrees.

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