HPISD School Board Candidate Intends To Request Recount
Tyler Beeson intends to seek a recount of Saturday’s election results “and possibly further action,” his campaign announced.
Beeson challenged incumbent Jae Ellis in the race for the place 4 seat on the Highland Park ISD board of trustees.
In unofficial results, Ellis, who was first elected to the board in 2019, led Beeson, who works in wealth management, with 51% of the vote (4,174 votes) to Beeson’s 49% (4,033 votes). The votes in the election are set to be canvassed at the May 17 school board meeting, per Highland Park ISD chief of staff Jon Dahlander.
(READ: May 7 Election Results)
“I am not doing this for me, I’m doing this for the over 4,000 plus voters that voted for me,” Beeson said. “Should these ‘22 election results stand, I will officially be running again in ‘23 for (board president) Tom Sharpe’s expected vacancy.”
Sharpe and board vice president Stacy Kelly’s terms expire in 2023. Neither has publicly announced their plans for next year as of the time of this post.
“I want to thank every one of the 8,200+ people who voted in the HPISD school board election,” Ellis said of the election results. “What we all have in common — we all want excellent education for every student — is much greater than anything that might divide us, and we are blessed to live in a community where so many people are so passionate about our public schools. Running for public office is not easy, and I am thankful for everybody who took the courageous step of running in contested elections: Tyler Beeson, Spencer Siino, and Ellen Lee.”
Per the Texas Secretary of State’s website, a candidate can file a petition for a recount if the difference between the number of votes received by the petitioner and the number of votes received by the person who was elected or is entitled to a place on the runoff election ballot is less than 10% of the number of votes received by the person elected or entitled to a place on the runoff ballot.
The deadline to request a recount is 5 p.m. the second day after the canvass, per the website.
“A request for a recount does not delay the canvass, but the canvassing authority must make a note on the canvass that a recount has been requested,” according to the Texas Secretary of State’s website.
Once filed, the petition for a recount would have to be reviewed within 48 hours and, if approved, a recount would be ordered to be held on the later of the seventh day after the date the petition is approved, or the day after all ballots have been delivered to the general custodian of election records, per the website.
For more information about the process, visit the Texas Secretary of State’s website.
For more of our coverage of the Highland Park ISD school board elections, click here.
