HD-97 Runoff Election Results: Dan Barrett v. Mark Shelton

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 06:23 PM CST

• 7:00 PM - DAN BARRETT (D) WINS EARLY VOTE.
  
  
• 7:15 PM - There are about 95,600 registered voters in HD-97. That puts the Early Vote turnout at  3.9% of total voters.
  
  
• 7:25 PM - Here are some things to think about. If the Early Vote makes up 1/3 of the total vote, Barrett could win as little as 47.4% of the Election Day vote and still win the election.  If the Early Vote makes up 1/2 of the total vote, Barrett could win as little as 44.9% of the Election Day vote and still win the election.
  
  
• 8:15 PM - To save you from having to do the calculations below, from the 8 precincts reporting today, Barrett won them 52%-48% over Shelton.
  
  
• 8:30 PM - The last update was a large chunk of data and I've run some numbers on it. If returns come in at the same rate they have been... we can project about 5,214 total votes to be cast on Electon Day meaning 8,937 total turnout. That makes the "win number" 4,468 votes of which Barrett would have to win only 45.6% or 625 at this point.
  
  
• BOR CALLS ELECTION FOR DAN BARRETT
  
  
• Yeah, at this point, Barrett could get just 6.2% of the vote in the remaining five boxes and win.
  
  
• 8:55 - Barret wins Election Day vote by 69 votes and wins the election by 452 votes! He outperformed the Democratic performance in the district by 13 points.
  
  
• 9:00 - IT'S OVER. DEMOCRAT DAN BARRETT WINS.  Republican Control of the Texas House is now down to 79-71 with Democrats having picked up 2 seats since 2006 elections (Kirk England switching parties and Barrett's win tonight). Matt will be following up here tonight with what this election means for Democrats in 2008. 

Results updating below. 

UPDATE AS OF: 9:00 PM 

Precincts Reporting:  46 of 46  (100%)

source: Texas Secretary of State
source: Tarrant County Elections