Updated at 12:22 a.m. This story has been updated to reflect the latest results and election information from Tarrant County elections.
Tarrant County Commissioners Court Precinct 3 incumbent Gary Fickes is leading Democratic challenger Kathy Braatz. Based on early voting and partial election day ballots cast, Fickes leads with 145,945 votes, or 69.72%, compared to 80,513 votes for Braatz.
The role of county commissioner includes building and maintaining county roads and bridges as well as adopting county budgets and tax rates. Commissioners also fill vacancies in elective and appointed offices, authorize contracts and set salaries and benefits for county employees.
Fickes attended Sam Houston State University and served as mayor of Southlake from 1989-1996 and as chairman of the Southlake Planning and Zoning Commission from 1986-1989. His policies focus on improving access to healthcare, continued economic development and investments and fiscal responsibility.
Braatz is a former police officer and served in the U.S. Army. She also has two decades of experience working in the defense industry. Braatz served as the chair of the Northeast Tarrant County Democrats club. Her policies focus on bail reform, sustainable building practices, and improving access to healthcare.
Ballots are still being counted. These results are updated as of 9:50 p.m. and are unofficial until they are canvassed and certified by the county clerk. Under Texas Election law, the clerk accepts and counts mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 4, if they were sent from inside the U.S., or Nov. 9, if they were sent from outside the U.S.
In addition, Tarrant County election officials announced Tuesday that, as of 9 p.m., Nov. 3, 11,000 out of the county's 69,941 mail-in ballots received are expected to be rejected by the county's voting machines. Officials reported issues with counting mail-in ballots and held an emergency meeting on Nov. 2 to bring in extra volunteers to manually go through defective ballots that were rejected by election scanners.
The announcement did not say when the counting of rejected mail-in ballots might be completed.
For complete 2020 Election results visit the Community Impact Newspaper results page.
