Austin Pushed to Victory by Tuesday's Ballots

Dallas' mayor of 16 years will serve four more.

Boyd Austin Jr. fended off a challenge by Marvin Tingler by earning 439 votes to Tingler's 368, or 54.3 to 45.5 percent of the votes cast; two write-in votes were recorded.

“It’s been a long six months, it’s been a long race,” Austin said after getting the news that he won Tuesday’s election. “I think my record has been vindicated. I’m glad to have people turn out and vote, we had a big turnout today, and they said what they wanted—they spoke and spoke on my behalf.”

Tingler held a slight lead earlier in the night 184 to 177, when only early/advanced voting and absente-by-mail ballots had been tabulated, though absentee ballots heavily favored Austin, as he took 64 of the 80 such votes. Tuesday’s polling numbers pushed Austin to victory, though, as he took 262 of those votes to Tingler’s 184.

“I am disappointed that I lost, but 800 people turned out to vote in Dallas, and that is, as of right now, the largest turnout in a Dallas city election,” Tingler said. “So Dallas residents became engaged in a city election, and it showed. I could’ve probably done some things differently, or worked a little bit harder, but overall, I think I’m pretty proud of how I did.”

See Austin’s and Tingler’s complete reactions to Tuesday’s results in the attached videos.

In all, 815 votes were cast by city voters, or 16.9 percent of the city’s 4,816 registered voters.

In Hiram, incumbent Jack Paris won election to his first full term as mayor. Paris, who was unopposed, earned 211 votes—92.5 percent of ballots cast in his race. Seventeen write-in votes also were recorded.