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Kris Cox will run against Sunny Busby for the Place 1 seat on Denton City Council in December.
According to a Nov. 10 city announcement, Cox secured the spot on the runoff ballot after final unofficial election results came in.
What happened?
After the Nov. 3 election, unofficial results from Nov. 4 showed Busby earned the most overall votes, Cox and Michael Herron were tied for second place and Ward Franz secured the fourth-most votes for the District 1 seat.
Outstanding ballots by mail and provisional ballots needed to be counted yet by the Denton County Elections Administration to possibly serve as a tie-breaker since three candidates cannot be on a runoff ballot, Community Impact previously reported.
According to the updated unofficial results the city provided, the vote counts show:
Busby earned 3,196 votes, or 42.76%
Cox secured 1,551 votes, or 20.75%
Herron received 1,550 votes, or 20.74%
Franz earned 1,178 votes, or 15.76%
Previously, both Cox and Herron had 1,550 votes, meaning the tiebreaker was determined by a single vote.
The backstory
For a winner to be determined for the race, a candidate needed more than 50% of the votes. Since that did not occur, the top-two candidates with the most votes advanced to a runoff.
A special election was called after former District 1 council member Jordan Villarreal announced he was stepping down July 30, less than three months after winning the seat in May. He ran for the position after Vicki Byrd vacated the seat to run for a trustee seat with Denton ISD.
Looking ahead
Results from the Nov. 3 election will be canvassed at the Nov. 17 City Council meeting. If they are certified, council members are expected to formally call for the runoff election, which would take place Dec. 12.
The deadline to register to vote in the runoff is Nov. 12, and the early voting period will be between Nov. 30 and Dec. 8.
The District 1 seat term runs through May 2027 and will be on the ballot again during that election, according to the city’s website.
