Burks wins runoff for Tax Assessor-Collector

BY VALERIE REDDELL
Editor
polknews@gmail.com

LIVINGSTON — Leslie Jones Burks won the runoff for the Republican nomination for Polk County Tax Assessor-Collector Tuesday against Todd Miller with 2,001 votes (53.53 percent) to Miller’s 1,737 (46.47 percent). Since she faces no Democratic opposition in the November general election, she will be sworn in on Jan. 1, 2013. “I appreciate everything everybody has done for me,” Burks said after the ballots were counted Tuesday night. “It was a nerve-wracking experience. After early voting there was only 71 votes between us … it was so close.” “Benny (Fogleman, Polk County Republican Chairman) wouldn’t count the votes until the last box came in. When he finally came out, I started squawling and bawling. I would have done that whether I won or lost.” “Livingston and Corrigan had a lot of paper ballots and a lot of voters. That’s what took so long,” Burks added. Tuesday’s Republican Primary Runoff drew what may be a record turnout, especially for the early voting period. Early voting by personal appearance brought in 1,713 voters and 645 cast ballots by mail. On the Democratic side, 38 voted early in person and 52 sent in mail ballots. Surprisingly, in early voting, most ballots were cast in the U.S. Senate race, not the hotly contested race. Burks had a slight led of 73 votes when early voting results were reported at about 8 p.m. In the Senate race, 2,249 ballots were marked; 2,219 in the Polk County Tax Assessor- Collector race. Under votes reached a peak in the Supreme Court, Place 4 race where apparently voters were unfamiliar with either candidate so 708 of them skipped the race entirely. In Polk County Steve Stockman took 62.37 percent of the vote over challenger Stephen Takach in the runoff for the newly created District 36, U.S. Congress. Polk County was bucking the statewide trend in the U.S. Senate race. Locally, 57.95 percent supported David Dewhurst over Ted Cruz by a margin of 57.95 percent to 42.05 percent, but shortly after the polls closed, most Texas media outlets were projecting Cruz as the winner.

San Jacinto County’s Run-off Election Results

At A Glance REPUBLICAN PARTY UNITED STATES SENATOR Ted Cruz 786 (61.31 %) David Dewhurst 496 (38.69 %) RAILROAD COMMIISSIONER Warren Chisum 466 (39.29 %) Christi Craddick 720 (60.71 %) Railroad Commissioner, UNEXPIRED Barry Smitherman 764 (65.92 %) Greg Parker 395 (34.08 %) JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT, PLACE 4 John Devine 764 (59.97 %) David Medina 464 (40.03 %) DEMOCRATIC PARTY UNITED STATES SENATOR Grady Yarbrough 62 (44.60 %) Paul Sadler 72 (56.40 %) A total of 1,428 ballots were cast in San Jacinto County out of 15,918 registered voters. Republican Party voted 1,285 Democratic Party voted 143