Summary:
70.01% vs 29.99% in favor of remaining in DART
55.80% vs 44.20% in favor of the police facilities bond and associated property tax increase
Council Results (top 3 win)
| Candidate | Vote % | Raw Votes |
|---|---|---|
| Chris DeFrancisco (incumbent) | 23.40% | 1,070 |
| Schnell Blanton | 23.16% | 1,059 |
| Darren Gardner (incumbent) | 20.40% | 933 |
| Trish Stuart | 16.62% | 760 |
| Howard Freed (incumbent) | 16.42% | 751 |
Analysis:
Putting DART on the ballot led to substantially elevated turnout: in 2025, 2,333 ballots were cast in the council election; this year, it was 4,573.
The Circle saw the largest turnout increase of all precincts; in previous May elections, the area has hovered around 3-4% turnout. This time around, turnout was 17.27%, and 83.12% voted to remain in DART. Clearly the idea of losing the Silver Line stop and bus access galvanized many Circle residents.
Every precinct voted to remain in DART by at least 65%, except for the more conservative Oaks North neighborhood, where 59.52% voted to leave. Oaks North also had the highest turnout of all precincts (48.37%), but despite that they were dwarfed in raw votes by the Circle, which I'm not sure has ever happened before.
The three most pro-transit candidates for council won handily while the two anti-DART candidates lost, including incumbent Howard Freed, who won the least votes.
Incumbent Darren Gardner captured a fair amount of strategic support from pro-transit voters; despite voting to hold the DART referendum, he is seen as somewhat moderate on transit. I assume at least a handful of Stuart/Freed voters made the strategic choice to select him as well. Nonetheless, his third-place result was 3 percentage points worse than the two openly pro-transit candidates. If there was another more explicitly pro-DART candidate in the race, perhaps he would have lost.
The police facilities bond proposition wasn't discussed a whole lot before the election, but it posted a much closer result than the DART referendum. This is likely because it involves a tax increase, whereas voting Yes on DART just maintains the status quo. I assume at least a handful of voters also balked at the idea of dedicating more money to the police. Nonetheless, these results were much less geographically polarized; every precinct voted in favor of the bond. The Addison North precinct, where the current police building is located, was the strongest supporter: 64.32% voted in favor. All other precincts voted around 53-55% in favor.
I'll also take a minute to highlight my neighborhood of Vitruvian, which again posted the lowest turnout of all precincts at 4.35% (still ~3x higher than last year). Vitruvian also posted the highest support for DART (88.42% in favor) and the lowest support for the police bond (53.68% in favor). Granted, only 95 people voted, but I still found that interesting.
Takeaways:
- Obviously, Addison voters are very much in favor of DART and did not see microtransit as a viable replacement for it.
- Moreover, voters did not seem to appreciate DART being put up for a vote in the first place, as evidenced by Freed coming in last place and Gardner posting a noticeably worse result than Blanton and DeFrancisco.
- Such a clear mandate should serve as a wake-up call to the rest of the council to stop waffling and commit to greater walkability and transit access. Future candidates for council would also be keen to note these results and campaign accordingly.
- A question for future: Was the elevated turnout in renter-heavy areas (specifically the Circle) purely the result of the DART question, or can it be maintained going forward? The latter scenario would portend a big shift in voting power away from homeowners in Les Lacs and Oaks North, which could have a profound impact on future elections.
Let me know what you guys think about these results and what it means for the future of Addison.