Northwest Branch Library Polling Location on Election Day/Photo by Noah Dawson

Turnout in this year’s city runoff election was remarkably average.

In this year’s city election, only about 55% of voters who voted in the first round returned for the runoff. This is slightly less than what Amarillo has historically seen, with the overall average closer to 60%.

Though this year’s runoff had a slightly larger dip in turnout from the first round than the city’s historic average, only 3 of the 20 previous runoffs in Amarillo history had more votes cast.

The most recent city runoff to have more voters was in 1977, when runoffs were held for Place 1, Place 3, and Place 4. While just over 11,600 votes were cast in this year’s election, over 16,000 were cast in the 1977 runoff. The other two runoffs to have a higher number of votes cast were in 1969, when over 27,000 votes were cast, and 1967, when over 15,500 votes were cast.

While having the 4th highest turnout of any city runoff seems impressive, that doesn’t account for Amarillo’s growing population. When looking at the turnout percentage, this year’s runoff was much closer to the middle of the pack, earning 11th place.

Taking a look at individual runoff races, of which Amarillo has now seen 37, just over half of the winners did better than the two winners of this year’s runoff. Les Simpson, who won the Place 4 runoff with 60.37% of the vote, had the 20th largest runoff victory in Amarillo history. Right behind Simpson is Josh Craft, who had the 21st largest victory with his 60.03% of the vote.

The winners are expected to be sworn in during a special meeting of Amarillo City Council scheduled for July 5th. To view the full election results, click here.