March 19, 2018 358 PM
PRESIDIO COUNTY – The race for Presidio County judge was split among north and south county voting precincts, despite a concerted effort by candidates not to make it a political issue, according to voting results from the Presidio County Clerk’s office.
The race pitted incumbent Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara of Marfa and Presidio Mayor John Ferguson, along with candidate Dina Jo Losoya Marquez in the Democratic Party Primary Election.
Ferguson and Guevara will meet again in a May 22 runoff election. The final tally was 567 votes for Guevara, 513 votes for Ferguson, and 380 votes for Losoya Marquez.
Guevara earned more than double the votes cast for both Ferguson and Losoya Marquez combined in the two Marfa precincts, 1 and 7, walking away with 419 total votes in the northern part of the county, with Ferguson pulling 174 votes. Losoya earned 182 votes in her favor.
Ferguson took the southern precincts two through six by a wide margin, with 356 votes to Losoya’s 198 and Guevara’s 148 votes.
Following the election, Losoya endorsed Ferguson in a social media post thanking her 380 supporters who cast ballots for her.
“I want thank everyone who supported me and had confidence and trusted your vote for me, but God has a different direction for me. It was a great learning experience especially the bonding with so many of you. Good luck and best wishes on the runoffs, Mr. John Ferguson,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
In the Presidio County Treasurer’s race, incumbent Treasurer Frances Garcia defeated her opponent, Office of Management and Budget Director Katie Sanchez, in all precincts.
Garcia handily won north county precincts with 432 votes to Sanchez’s 315 votes; while narrowly taking south county precincts with seven votes at a final 285 – 278 split.
Voter turnout in the county was a respectable 40 percent, with 1591 Democrats casting ballots and 24 Republican casting early voting ballots, for a total voter turnout of 1,615 voters. Election Day Republican ballots weren’t available for GOP voters on account of a lack of volunteers.
The total number of registered Presidio County voters on election day was 4,045, according to the Presidio County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office.
The runoff election between Guevara and Ferguson, as well as the unexpired Precinct 3 Commissioner seat between Jose Cabezuela and Edgar Ramirez, will take place on Tuesday, May 22.
The runoff winners will take office in January 2019 as there aren’t any Republican candidates.
Also on the runoff ballot will be Congressional District 23 candidates Gina Ortiz Jones and Rick Trevino, and the winner will face incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Will Hurd in the November general election.
Ortiz Jones won Presidio County over four other candidates with 584 total votes in the county.
Trevino came in a surprise second-place district-wide despite the fact that he raised the least amount of campaign contributions between all five of the candidates at $24,178 declared in the February 14 Federal Election Commission report.
Ortiz Jones sat on the top of the pack with most funds raised at $598,778.
The last day for voter registration will be Monday, April 23, and early voting polls will be open from Monday, May 14 – Friday, May 18.
Information regarding voting by mail and voter registration may be obtained through the Texas Secretary of State website at https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/.
