The citizens of Forney and those residing outside of city limits but paying property taxes to Forney ISD voted today on 7 proposed bonds for Forney ISD and 3 proposed bonds for the City of Forney. The polls closed at 7PM and the county is dilligently working to count the votes as quickly as possible. Early voting results have been posted, and appear below. Throughout the evening, as more votes are counted, I’ll update this post with the results…

For more information on the 7 propositions for Forney ISD, see ForneyBondElection.com; for more information about the 3 propositions for the City of Forney, see BondingForneysFuture.org.

Early Voting + 16 of 42 Precincts Reporting (no election day votes from Forney Precincts have been posted yet) @ 8:21PM:

• Forney ISD
  • Prop 1: 1,073 for; 1,068 against (50.12% for, passing)
  • Prop 2: 1,178 for; 961 against (55.07% for, passing)
  • Prop 3: 1,010 for; 1,108 against (52.31% against, failing)
  • Prop 4: 998 for; 1,130 against (53.10% against, failing)
  • Prop 5: 1,021 for; 1,102 against (51.91% against, failing)
  • Prop 6: 936 for; 1,206 against (56.30% against, failing)
  • Prop 7: 788 for; 1,333 against (62.85% against, failing)
• City of Forney
  • Prop 1: 708 for; 253 against (73.67% for, passing)
  • Prop 2: 618 for; 333 against (64.98% for, passing)
  • Prop 3: 565 for; 386 against (59.41% for, passing)

Stay tuned for updates…also, these results are direct from the County, but are not official, have not been certified and may contain my own typos, especially as I work to get the results up as fast as possible up until the final results are posted.

Update @ 9:03PM: For those of you watching the statwide and national elections, Fox News has already called Perry to win as Governor, with 7% reporting. Of course, we all know how Fox News loves to call these things way too early. The most current results I’ve seen were at CBS’s website, which shows 9% reporting, with Perry leading Bell for governor, 646,944 to 459,420 (40% to 29%).

In the US House and Senate…in the House, the Democrats so far have an 18 seat advantage on the Republicans, with 99 Republicans winning elections and 117 Democrats winning. In the Senate right now, the Republicans have a 1 seat advantage, with 46 Republicans winning and 45 Democrats winning.

Also, Kaufman County has posted updated results with 31 of 42 precincts reporting (73.81% of the precincts), however, none of the new precincts were within Forney city limits, the only new results in the Forney races were the Forney ISD elections, with only 60 or so new votes…only bond that changed was Proposition 1, which is now failing 1,100 votes to 1,101.

Update @ 11:31PM – Final Election Results – 42 of 42 Precincts Reporting

• Forney ISD
  • Prop 1: 2,490 for; 2,165 against (53.49% for, passes)
  • Prop 2: 2,736 for; 1,918 against (58.79% for, passes)
  • Prop 3: 2,320 for; 2,292 against (50.30% for, passes)
  • Prop 4: 2,318 for; 2,317 against (50.01% for, passes)
  • Prop 5: 2,426 for; 2,203 against (52.41% for, passes)
  • Prop 6: 2,199 for; 2,452 against (52.72% against, fails)
  • Prop 7: 1,637 for; 2,972 against (64.48% against, fails)
• City of Forney
  • Prop 1: 1,527 for; 504 against (75.18% for, passes)
  • Prop 2: 1,279 for; 731 against (63.63% for, passes)
  • Prop 3: 1,236 for; 780 against (61.31% for, passes)

What does these results mean for Forney?

Well, first the good news. All three city bond initiatives passed, at least in the final, unofficial count of the vote. This means 54 million dollars worth of improvements to the roads in Forney, primarily focusing on an impressive plan to build a beltway around Forney, as well as significant improvements to the “WalMart intersection” at Highway 80 & FM-548, where a majority of the new commercial development is building in Forney.

This also means almost 12 million dollars for a new police station, holding area and municipal court.

Finally, this means a little more than 14 million dollars for parks, primarily focusing on the first phases of a 127 acre community park on FM-548 between 1641 and 741.

Unfortunately, Forney ISD didn’t fair as well. A majority of Forney ISD’s bond proposals passed, meaning Forney ISD will be able to:

• Build 4 new elementary schools on land already owned
• Buy the land for a total of 6 additional new elementary schools
• Buy the land for a new middle school
• Upgrade facilities at Criswell Elementary, Johnson Elementary and Forney High School
• Build a new bus maintenance facility and build a new (relocated) agricultural facility
• Build a new Network Operations Center
• Expand the Electronic Textbook Initiative district-wide to grades 5-12

So Forney will be able to build 4 new elementary schools, and purchase the land for a third middle school and 6 additional new elementary schools. However, unfortunately, both proposition 6 (a new high school on land already owned by the district that’s set aside to be used for a new high school) and proposition 7 (a new freshman center on land to be purchased by the district) failed. So the voters have said that they don’t want a new high school, and they clearly do not want a freshman center. However, the current high school is becoming overcrowded and will reach its capacity within a few years, if not sooner.

The good news is, the voters in Forney ISD rejected a new high school by about a 2-to-1 margin back in May of this year. This time, six months later, as more people with children move to Forney and realize the importance of ensuring smaller class sizes and keeping pace with growth, the measure failed by a little over 250 votes, a much, much closer margin. Surely over the next six months to a year, 250 people will realize the tremendous need for a second high school and will vote for the measure the next time it comes around. Obviously, with Forney growing at an estimated 20% growth rate, this issue will come up again, and soon, as the situation becomes more dire.

Also, remember, EVERY VOTE COUNTS. You’ve heard it before, and it sounds cheesy, but re-read the results of the election. Proposition 4 of the Forney ISD bond election passed by one vote. That one vote made a difference. So if you haven’t already, register to vote and be sure to vote in the elections that will be coming up in May 2007.