Yoakum’s city council incumbents edged out by challengers

As few as two votes in one race and five in another is all that separated the winners from the losers Saturday in Yoakum’s first contested city council race in a couple decades, unofficial election night returns showed.

In both contested seats, unofficially, it was the challengers edging out their opponents by a nose. John S. Pelech led the ballots 116-109 against Sean Mooney for the Place 4 seat on the council, and in the closest race of the night, Michael Brandt finished 115-113 over incumbent Billy Goodrich for Place 5.

Pelech, the son of Yoakum Municipal Judge Daniel Pelech, was trailing by 17 ballots before polls opened on May 7, unofficial results showed. Mooney led the early voting 54-37. But then Pelech made up some serious ground on election day, outpacing his opponent 79-55 on May 7 to walk away with the win Saturday.

Likewise, Goodrich led by a 21-vote margin in early voting—56-35 over Brandt, his challenger—but Brandt also brought in the ballots come election day, topping Goodrich 80-57 on Saturday to seal the win, unofficially.

Just 231 Yoakum residents participated in the council election, Saturday’s numbers showed. A total 92 voted early and 139 cast their ballots Saturday.

Results from Saturday’s race will not become official until the city council meets to review the numbers and approve the results, which is scheduled for this week’s city council meeting on Tuesday, May 10.

Once election results are confirmed, the Yoakum council will then select its own leadership, as is tradition in the city. Each councilmember is elected to serve a particular seat on the council. The council itself selects who holds the titles of mayor and mayor pro-tem from year to year.