Voted Early But, Clearly, Not Often: With 29,688 Votes In, Rawlings Way Out in Front

The county just posted its early-voting numbers, and it's Mike Rawlings with the early lead -- and quite the lead at that. Of the 29,688 votes cast during early voting, the ex-Pizza Hut CEO got 42.75 percent of 'em -- which translates to 12,693 votes, for those bad at math. Former DPD Chief David Kunkle comes in a distant second, trailing by 4,140 with 8,553 so far. Council member Ron Natinsky's even further behind at 7,900. And Ed Okpa? A whole 542.

Looking at some of the key council races, Scott Griggs has an early lead over Dave Neumann for the District 3 seat: 1,287 to 1,022. In District 14, so far James Nowlin's not much of a threat to Angela Hunt: She's got 2,024; he, 968. And in District 12, former council member Sandy Greyson leads Donna Starnes 1,837 to 1,553.

Time to pour something brown over ice, though I can't imagine this'll take too long: When I voted at 8:30 this morning at Leonides Gonzalez Cigarroa M.D. Elementary School, I was the 23rd to feed a ballot into the machine; nine hours later, that number was up to a whopping 248. We cruised by more than a dozen polling places through the day, from the NW to downtown to Oak Cliff to S. Polk Street -- every one deserted. Like, post-apocalyptic. A few Friends of Unfair Park who checked in throughout the day noted similarly dismal showings at their polling places, most in North and East Dallas.

A little past 4 this afternoon, Natinsky's campaign posted to its Facebook wall that after "making spot checks of the voter turnout at key precincts, as anticipated -- compared to the mayoral election four years ago -- election day voting is down city-wide ... but the fall off is even greater in the Southern Sector. What will this mean to the Ron Natinsky Campaign." We'll know soon enough.