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El Paso election results: City Council headed to runoff between Josh Acevedo, Veronica Carbajal [1]
['Elida S. Perez', 'More Elida S. Perez', 'El Paso Matters']
Date: 2023-12-09
The City Council District 2 seat is headed to a runoff as no candidate received more than 50% of the vote.
The two top vote-getters were Josh Acevedo and Veronica Carbajal. Neither acquired enough votes to win the race outright as only 2,171 voters, or 4.5%, of the 47,762 registered voters in District 2 went to the polls.
Both Carbajal and Acevedo finished with 36% of the vote. The runoff will be Jan. 20.
“It’s disheartening to see the voter turnout be extremely low. It’s difficult to get the voters out especially during the holiday season,” Acevedo said Saturday night.
Acevedo said he will continue to reach out to voters to share his message.
“What’s resonating is that I’m the most qualified person,” Acevedo said.
Carbajal said there are a lot of factors that led to the low voter turnout, but her campaign has been aggressive in trying to reach voters in the District.
“Even folks that we’ve contacted a number of times have forgotten the election was today, or they thought the election was on Tuesday,” Carbajal said.
Carbajal said going to a runoff will help distinguish the differences between herself and Acevedo.
“What’s different now is that we will know where Josh stands on the different issues,” Carbajal said.
Candidates Judy Gutierrez received 24% votes and Ben Mendoza received 4%.
The special election was called by the City Council to replace city Rep. Alexsandra Annello, who resigned her seat in October to run for state representative. Annello will serve until her replacement is sworn in.
District 2 includes parts of Northeast, Central and the Ascarate Park area. City representatives set the city tax rate, adopt a budget and make policy decisions that impact everything from streets to economic development aside from addressing issues specific to their designated areas. They are currently paid about $60,000.
The City Council will enter next year with key decisions looming including the hiring of a permanent city manager and deciding the fate of the long-stalled Downtown multipurpose performing arts and entertainment center project approved by voters in 2012.
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[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2023/12/09/city-council-district-2-election-results-josh-acevedo-veronica-carbajal-headed-to-runoff/
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