San Antonio votes to protect the aquifer and buy more parkland

It's nice to see pleasing election results. On the surface, the San Antonio election yesterday went very much as I would have liked. And I couldn't even vote, living a couple miles outside the city limits.

First and foremost, Proposition 1 to renew a 1/8-cent sales tax to buy land to protect the aquifer passed by more than 10%: 55.1% to 44.9%. Proposition 2, to share the same 1/8-cent tax to buy land for linear parks, also passed, by a slightly smaller margin. This is a sales tax I will be happy to continue paying, even though I could not vote on it.

Furthermore, my least favorite mayoral candidate, Carroll Schubert, was eliminated. Julian Castro and Phil Hardberger will face off in a runoff on June 7, and perhaps I will finally be able to decide which of those guys I prefer. Alas, I still won't be able to vote. Castro got 42%, to 30% for Hardberger, to 26% for Schubert.

Over in the small town of Helotes, just northwest of San Antonio, where a dispute over a prospective Wal-Mart supercenter at a scenic location has been simmering over the last few months, the Wal-Mart opponents ousted at least one pro-Wal-Mart member of the city council. And perhaps all three that they were aiming for, though the margins in the latter two races are four votes and, for Helotes mayor, a single vote. Yes, a single vote!

The Helotes Heritage Association, run by the Wal-Mart opponents, is already proclaiming victory on their website, though I suspect that may be premature.

Despite the conflicts of interest, petitions, meetings, letters, phone calls, protests, sea of "STOP WAL-MART, SAVE HELOTES" signs and a car fleet of "SAVE SCENIC LOOP" bumper stickers, the Helotes City Administration ruled by pro-developer politicians Steve Hodges and Charles James tried to push ahead with Wal-Mart plans in defiance of citizens.

Voters yesterday rejected Steve Hodges and his allies, Jim Collier and Pat Wooten, to elect a slate of candidates who oppose the Wal-Mart and pro-developer policies. Initial talleys show Jon Allan was elected Mayor over Hodges by one vote, 640 to 639, in a record voter turnout. Linda Boyer-Ownes, who also opposes Wal-Mart, has been certified the victor over Jim Collier with 673 votes over Collier's 565. Stuart Birnbaum, another Wal-Mart protest leader, beat Pat Wooten 640 to 636.

Finally, San Antonio is a big city with over a million people. So why did the lead candidate in the mayoral race get less than 48,000 votes? Barely 100,000 people voted. That strikes me as rather dismal turnout, by an absolute standard. But of course, it's probably quite typical historically.

UPDATE: Here's the San Antonio Express-News report on the Helotes election results. Apparently Hodges is already breaking out charges of voter fraud and talking about questioning voters.