Chad West chose ballot position 4 in his race to replace Scott Griggs for Dallas City Council Place 1. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Candidates for Dallas City Council, including those running for mayor, picked ballot positions on Monday morning (Feb. 25) in the Flag Room at Dallas City Hall. Every race is contested, with at least two candidates. For a complete list of candidates and their positions on the ballot, see here.

Place 7, in South Dallas (currently represented by Kevin Felder) and Place 15 (mayor) each have nine candidates. This is the first time since the current council configuration was created in the early 1990s that every race has more than one opponent.

Candidates for each race were called one at a time in alphabetical order to select a sealed envelope with a ballot position number inside.

Among the LGBT candidates is Chad West, running for Place 1. He chose position 4 in a four-way race. Erin Moore, running in a five-way race for District 9 in East Dallas, chose position 2. As candidates were called, most chose their own envelope or had a representative select for them. Moore is the only candidate whose spouse, Patti Fink, selected with her.

Adam Medrano, running for a fourth term in District 2, chose position 1. He has two opponents. Omar Narvaez, running for a second term in Place 6, chose position 2. In 2017, Narvaez defeated Monica Alonzo, who was at the time running for her fourth term. Alonzo, who is now challenging Narvaez, chose ballot position 3 in the three-way race, which also includes Tony Carrillo.

Dallas City Council and mayor’s races are non-partisan. Ballot position can be important because some voters, who don’t know any of the candidates, randomly select a name. Statistically, the first name on list receives the most random votes. In close races, that will can a difference.

To win, a candidate must receive 50 percent plus one vote to be declared the winner. If no one receives the majority of votes on Election Day, a run-off is held between the top two vote-getters. Because of the number of candidates, a run-off is expected in many of the races. With nine candidates running for mayor, it’s unlikely one candidate will emerge as the frontrunner and a run-off is expected.

Dallas Voice will be interviewing each of the LGBT candidates running for council in the coming weeks, as well as all ally candidates who request an interview.

— David Taffet

Erin Moore, left, and her wife Patti Fink chose ballot position 2 in the Place 9 Dallas City Council race. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)