By Valerie Fields Hill
News Editor
Texas Metro News
Two longtime Tarrant County community servants, Alisa Simmons and Ruby Faye Woolridge, appeared headed for a runoff Tuesday night in the Democratic primary race to replace Tarrant County Commissioner Devan Allen.
Simmons was leading at 11 p.m. Tuesday with 51.03 percent of the absentee and early votes in the race for the Tarrant County commissioner Precinct 2 seat. Woolridge followed closely behind with 48.97 percent of the vote, in unofficial results.
By 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, Election Day in-person voting results had not been posted to the Tarrant County Elections Administration web site.
It was unclear why the re- sults had not been posted although election administrators had said the site would be updated with voter results every 30 to 45 minutes, beginning at about 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“The Elections Results Report will be posted beginning at approximately 7 p.m. on Election Night, displaying the early voting results (including both the early voting ballots cast in person and by mail),” a note on the site read.
“This report will then be updated approximately every 30 to 45 minutes beginning about 8:30 p.m. as Election Day Vote Center locations deliver their results to the counting stations.”
Meanwhile, neither Simmons or Woolridge publicly claimed victory late Tuesday night.
Neither candidate could be reached for comment. Neither posted messages on her campaign’s Facebook page or web site.
Earlier Tuesday, both candidates had encouraged voters to cast ballots in the race, which had become one of the more interesting races in the county.
The two Democratic candidates for the Precinct 2 Commissioners seat both raised eyebrows last month as they sparred over the sincerity of the other’s community service during a taped interview that they sat for with a Fort Worth Star-Telegram representative.
In the interview, Simmons said Woolridge had told her she was interested in the Commissioners job merely because of its $180,000 salary. Woolridge countered that Simmons revealed information shared with her in confidence. Both women are members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and worship at the same church.
The winner in the Democratic primary will face Republican Andy Nguyen who held the seat from 2010 to 2018, when Allen, a Democrat, flipped it. Allen announced she would not seek reelection last year.
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