Franklin, Barthels & Herman chosen (unofficially) to Shiner’s city council

Just 56 votes are that separated the those who won the most and least votes Saturday in the race for Shiner’s city council, unofficial election night totals showed.

Five candidates stepped forward for the three seats that opened this year when the two-year terms of Louis Herman, Bucky Boehm and Michael Furrh were set to expire. Herman filed for his seat once more, but Boehm and Furrh, having both moved outside city limits since their undisputed reelections two years prior, no longer qualified.

Their departure drew four new hopefuls to council race to run alongside Herman, including Will Franklin, Wayne Denison, Egon Barthels and Joey Gamez.

Gamez led the absentee ballots 26 votes, which just 9 votes more the Denison’s with the fewest absentee votes at 17. Similarly, early voting margins were equally tight, with Barthels leading the pack at 29 votes, unofficial numbers showed Saturday, while Herman had the least early votes with 15, a margin of just 14 votes greatest to least.

Election day numbers is where the real difference was made especially for the top two vote winners on the ballot. Franklin collected 110 votes Saturday, which combined with his early and absentee numbers pushed him to 159 votes overall, the most collected for the May 7 Shiner city council race.

Barthels, who 102 on Saturday to finish 150 votes overall, the second greatest number of votes won in the race.

Just one solitary vote separated Herman and Gamez, whose total votes rang in 123-122 in Herman’s favor. Herman collected eight more votes than Gamez on election day (83-75). Denison finished in last with 103 total votes collected, just 60 of those coming on election day.

While candidates in other towns may file for a specific seat on the council, Shiner picks its leaders based on whomever gets the most votes overall.  As such, the top three vote getters will take their respective oaths of office in a special called meeting at 8 a.m. today (Thursday, May 12) in the Shiner Public Works conference room.

In addition to oaths of office, council members will also canvass the election returns and then vote on approval of those results Until that has been completed, however, the posted numbers from Saturday’s election remain unofficial.