Taxpayers are enjoying a late election victory, as a bond proposal by the Midland Independent School District failed after final provisional ballots were tabulated. With interest, the $569 million bond would have cost Midland property taxpayers a total of $880 million in debt liability.

Election results went back and forth between showing the bond failing and passing by narrow margins, with unofficial results from election night showing the bond passing by 12 votes.

But the unofficial results were flipped going into final tabulation, with the bond failing by 30 votes due to an incorrect reading of the unofficial results from election night that stood uncorrected by the elections administrator for some time.

After a final review of the remaining provisional and military ballots this past Tuesday, the Midland County elections administrator declared the bond had indeed failed, losing by 25 votes.

Of the 23,631 votes cast in the bond election, the final results showed 11,803 votes for and 11,828 against the measure.

“It is with disappointment that I share that voters turned down our district’s bond measure,” MISD Superintendent Orlando Riddick said in a statement about the results.

Riddick urged unity among Midland residents. “Wherever you may have fallen on the bond issue, now is the time to come together in our mission as educators and stewards of our community’s future,” he said.

Leaders of opposition to the bond weighed in online:

“Midland has told MISD leadership we are focused on a better bond for Midland. We now must focus on improving academic opportunity for our students and hold MISD leadership accountable for results. We are ready to start working with MISD on a better bond immediately. Our focus should be on our students winning.”

Texas Scorecard previously reported that the political action committee called “We Choose Our Future,” formed to support the bond measure, greatly outspent the opposition PAC, led by local businessman Brandon Hodge. As of today, We Choose Our Future PAC raised $231,000, compared to $9,225 raised by Hodge’s “A Better Bond for Midland” PAC.

Neither side has yet indicated any intent to formally request a recount, leaving the final results showing that the bond failed by 25 votes.

Matt Stringer

Matthew Stringer is from Odessa, TX and serves as a West Texas Correspondent for Texas Scorecard.

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