Houston Mayoral Election 2019: Runoff Between Turner, Buzbee

HOUSTON, TX — Results from election day slowly trickeld in after polls closed Tuesday for the Houston mayoral election and for various other citywide races and the final unofficial vote totals show the mayoral race is heading to a runoff.

Unofficial early voting and all election day results from the Harris County Clerk's Office showed incumbent Mayor Sylvester Turner leading over his opponent Tony Buzbee but falling short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. The unofficial results show Turner leading with 46.36 percent of the vote, followed by Buzbee with 28.79 percent of the vote. Bill King was coming in third with 14.02 percent of the vote.

According to the latest updated results from the county clerk's website, all 757 of 757 voting centers were reporting results.

Turner released the following statement on Wednesday about the results of the election:

"To those who voted for me, thank you. To those who did not, I will work hard to earn your votes.

"The good news about this runoff is that Houstonians have a very simple and very clear choice for mayor: An experienced leader who has been delivering for Houston for more than 30 years? Or a Donald Trump imitator who has no experience, no ideas and will say anything, do anything or spend anything to get elected?

"I trust Houstonians to make the right decision for our city."

As KHOU noted, the slow pace of election results Tuesday night wasn't all that surprising as a directive from the Secretary of State's Office required mobile ballot box cards to be driven to the downtown central counting station. According to KHOU, the earlier plan was to drop off the cards at 10 sites and then transmite the results.

>>>Patch will continue to update this story as results from election day begin to come in. Refresh for updates.

Bob Stein, a political analyst at KHOU, had predicted that incumbent Turner would finish first but be forced into a runoff. The latest polling from the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs found that Turner was leading comfortably over Buzbee, King and Councilmember Dwight Boykins.

Turner has been serving as Houston Mayor since 2016 after he narrowly defeated King in a runoff election in 2015. On his campaign website, Turner lists his response to Hurricane Harvey, trimming the city budget and and appointing Art Acevedo as Houston's police chief to combat crimes as among his achievements.

Buzbee calls crime a serious problem facing the city. Other issues Buzbee highlighted on his website include the need to prepare for flooding and fighting corruption. See where Buzbee stands on all the issues.

Flooding, crime and corruption were also issues King highlighted in his campaign. King released a comprehensive plan to mitigate flooding in Houston. See where King stands on all the issues.

You can also visit the Houston Chronicle's election guide to see where the different mayoral candidates stand on the issues.

The following candidates were on the ballot Tuesday in the mayoral race:

Demetria Smith
Naoufal Houjami
Victoria Romero
Roy J. Vasquez
Kendall Baker
Derrick Broze
Sue Lovell
Bill King
Sylvester Turner
Tony Buzbee
Dwight A. Boykins
Johnny "J.T." Taylor

>>>Refresh this page as results come in for the Houston mayoral election.

Along with the mayoral race, several city council, Houston Community College trustee and Houston Independent School District trustee seats were on the ballot. Patch will be updating results for those elections as well. Follow along at the links below:

Houston City Council Election Results 2019

Houston ISD And Houston Community College Trustee Election Results 2019

Also on the ballot was a $3.5 billion METRO bond proposal intended to fund public transportation projects to ease traffic congestion and make mobility easier within the region.

Follow along for results on the METRO bond proposal.

Some Houston voters also cast ballot in the State House District 148 special election. The seat was left vacant after the resignation of Rep. Jessica Farrar.

Follow along for results from the State House 148 election.

Patch is also updating results for the statewide constitutional amendments on the ballot.