It’s official: Voters in Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District will be going back to the polls in June for a trustee runoff election between 10-year incumbent Becky St. John and challenger Amy Putnam.
A recount begun last Friday and concluded today confirmed that neither of the top two candidates in the three-way race for Grapevine-Colleyville ISD School Board Trustee, Place 2 received a majority of the votes cast on May 5.
Putnam trailed St. John by just seven votes on election night, and with a handful of votes going to write-in candidate Nick Walters, neither St. John nor Putnam garnered the 50 percent plus one vote needed to win the seat outright.
After counting provisional and overseas ballots, however, Tarrant County election officials revised the tally to 3,147 votes for St. John, 3,138 votes for Putnam, and 8 votes for Walters — giving St. John 50.1 percent.
But the still-razor-thin margin meant a recount was in order. The morning of May 18, when the elections office began recounting ballots, Putnam posted to her campaign Facebook page:
“It’s important that every vote is fairly counted. Regardless of the outcome I am confident that many of the important issues we have raised in the course of this campaign will continue to be discussed in the community.”
Today’s final recount tally narrowed the margin to four votes, and again no candidate received a majority.
Turnout was just over 12 percent in the contentious race that pitted St. John, representing the status quo, against reformer Putnam, who described herself as “just a mom of three GCISD kids who is passionate about our students and teachers.”
“I happen to be a former classroom teacher in two districts with undergrad and grad degrees in education,” she added. “And I think we can be better, much better, and make better decisions for our students, teachers and taxpayers. And that is who I would be representing on the Board.” Putnam is endorsed by Texans For Fiscal Responsibility.
Early voting in the June 16 runoff takes place June 4–12.
