Greater Magnolia Turned Out at 55%. The Count, Race by Race.

Voters in the 16 precincts around Magnolia, Dobbin and the City of Montgomery cast 36,424 ballots on November 3. That is 55.16% of the 66,033 people registered there, a little above the county's 53.38%, which was 260,209 ballots out of 487,460.

About three of every four county ballots were already in before Election Day. The 192,952 early votes we reported Tuesday were 74% of the final count.

Precinct lines do not follow town lines, so treat the 16 as a close fit and nothing more. The highest turnout among them was Precinct 13, voting at High Meadow Ranch, at 67.9%. Precinct 97, at the Magnolia Event Center Annex, came next at 62.5%. Precinct 29 on Friendship Drive was lowest at 45.1%, and Precinct 18 in town was next lowest at 47.3%.

The county races

• County judge: Mark Keough 166,182 (65.47%), James Graf 87,657 (34.53%). In the 16 precincts Keough had 27,712 votes to Graf's 8,118, or 77.3% to 22.7%. Graf has conceded. The new term runs four years from January 2027.
• Commissioner, Precinct 2: Charlie Riley, unopposed, 59,615 votes. This is the commissioner for most of the Magnolia area.
• Justice of the peace, Precinct 5: Billy Masden, unopposed, 35,866 votes.

The appraisal board

Voters filled three at-large seats on the board of the Montgomery Central Appraisal District, the seats we wrote about in September. Place 2 was the closest of the three.

• Place 1: Dale Inman 110,129 (60.13%), Gary Beck 73,033 (39.87%).
• Place 2: Frank S. Smith 95,162 (53.90%), Creg Mixon 81,397 (46.10%).
• Place 3: Sherry D. Tavel 120,647 (68.09%), Webb Melder 56,534 (31.91%).

State and federal seats, in Montgomery County

These totals are Montgomery County's only. Several of these districts reach into other counties, so a county number is not a district result.

• State House, District 3 (14 of the 16 precincts): Kristen Plaisance 56,960 (67.11%), Nicole King 27,918 (32.89%). Plaisance beat the incumbent, Cecil Bell Jr. of Magnolia, in the March Republican primary. Ballotpedia lists Bell's term as ending January 12, 2027.
• State House, District 16 (Dobbin and Montgomery precincts): Will Metcalf 55,740 (71.34%), Bobbie Clayton 22,392 (28.66%).
• U.S. House, District 8 (15 of the 16): Jessica Hart Steinmann 89,849 (71.75%), Laura Jones 35,369 (28.25%).
• State Senate, District 18 (7 of the 16): Lois W. Kolkhorst 17,041 (77.90%), Erica Gillum 4,835 (22.10%).
• State Senate, District 4 (Precinct 19 in Montgomery): Brett W. Ligon 127,994 (62.87%), Ron C. Angeletti 75,602 (37.13%).
• Governor, county count: Greg Abbott 162,155 (62.63%), Gina Hinojosa 93,048 (35.94%), Pat Dixon 3,618 (1.40%). In the 16 precincts: Abbott 74.4%, Hinojosa 24.2%.
• U.S. Senate, county count: Ken Paxton 155,782 (60.25%), James Talarico 98,324 (38.03%), Ted Brown 4,333 (1.68%). In the 16 precincts: Paxton 72.5%, Talarico 25.8%.

Tomball ISD, for the Decker Prairie precincts

Precincts 28 and 113 sit partly in Tomball ISD. In the Montgomery County count, Joseph M. Ferguson led John E. McStravick for Position 3 by 68 votes, 1,898 to 1,830. Tomball ISD also reaches into Harris County, which keeps its own count. Lacey Derrington had 2,709 votes to Patrick Beecher's 1,161 for Position 1. Michael Pratt and Mark Lewandowski were unopposed.

Two voters and a utility district

One other item on a Greater Magnolia ballot deserves a line. Walnut Creek MUD, a municipal utility district voting in Precinct 65, the J. L. Lyon Elementary polling place, put 10 measures and five director seats before its voters. The county's report shows two ballots, both cast early, and every measure passing 2 to 0.

• Confirmation of the district, and five directors.
• $135,100,000 in bonds for water, sewer and drainage.
• $41,440,000 in bonds for roads.
• $23,100,000 in bonds for parks and recreation.
• The same amounts again in refunding authority, and maintenance taxes capped at $1.50, $1.50 and $0.10 per $100 of assessed value.

The ballot labels each of the tax measures "This is a tax increase." New bonds add up to $199.64 million. Authorized is not the same as issued. A vote like this sets the ceiling, and only people registered inside the district can cast one.

What happens next

The county's report was run at 12:53 a.m. on November 4 with all 121 precincts in. The numbers are unofficial until the canvass, and late mail and provisional ballots can still move a close race. We will note it if a result here changes.

Editor's note: this ran as straight reporting because vote counts are settled public record. Nothing here takes a position on any candidate or measure. The 16-precinct figures are our own addition from the county's precinct report.