How the May 2024 election impacts South Dallas
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Last Saturday’s election means changes for South Dallas.
Ed Turner, who grew up in and lives in South Dallas, garnered more than 60% of votes to replace Justin Henry as our neighborhood’s trustee representing Dallas ISD District 9.
The Dallas College District 7 trustee election remains undecided. In the four-way race, Kesha O’Reilly led with 36.5% of votes followed by DeAndrea Fleming with 29.5%. However, since neither of them carried 50% or more of all votes cast, they will face each other in a May 28 runoff election.
Dallas voters approved all 10 bond propositions, giving the City $1.25 billion to spend on improvements. Each one passed with 68% or higher approval. Click the colored dots and purple lines on this map to see improvements coming to South Dallas via bond dollars, or find them in this list under District 7.
Like most Dallas elections, the decisions on who will govern and how we will spend tax dollars were made by a small fraction of Dallas residents. According to the Dallas County Elections Department, only 5.8% of registered voters in the City of Dallas cast a vote in the bond election. In the Dallas ISD District 9 election, only 4.3% of registered voters chose from the four candidates, and in South Dallas precincts, that number dropped to 4%.
The number of registered voters in South Dallas is 14,005 — a little more than half the neighborhood’s population. But only 559 neighbors voted for a Dallas ISD trustee.
We at Dallas Free Press aren’t interested in chiding those of you who didn’t cast a vote. What we are interested in is how we can do a better job of equipping you to vote in the next local election.
Do you need more info on the candidates? A better understanding of what they do (and don’t) have power over? Do you need to know how your vote could affect your school, your street or your safety? Maybe you need more reminders? A printed guide you can take with you to the polls?
The important question is: What do you want candidates to be talking about as they compete for votes? We’ll keep asking this question, and we’d love for you to reply to this email with your ideas.
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Keri Mitchell has spent 20+ years as a community journalist, including 15 years dedicated to community and civic journalism at Dallas’ Advocate magazines. She launched Dallas Free Press in early 2020 with the belief that all neighborhoods deserve reporting and storytelling that values their community and holds leaders accountable.
Mitchell says she is energized by “knowing our work is making an impact — listening to people, telling their stories with strong narratives paired with compelling data that leads to change. I also love spending time in our neighborhoods and with our neighbors, learning from them and working to determine how journalism can be part of the solution to their challenges.”
Mitchell is proud to be the winner of multiple awards during her journalism career including: Finalist in Magazine Feature Reporting (2018) and Finalist in Magazine Investigative Reporting (2017) from Hugh Aynesworth Excellence in Journalism, Best Feature Story (2011) from Texas Community Newspaper Association and Best Magazine Feature (2011) from Dallas Bar Association Philbin Awards.
Areas of Expertise:
local government, education, civic issues, investigative and enterprise reporting
Location Expertise:
Dallas, Texas
Official Title:
Founder + executive director
Email Address:
keri@dallasfreepress.com
