It’s official: Thompson is still mayor

HOUSTON — Though the number of outstanding ballots on election night wasn’t enough to swing the election, the city counted them anyway and in the end, Mayor Virgie Thompson slightly increased the margin by which she survived an attempted recall.

According to official tallies from the July 26 vote to recall Thompson, 196 Houstonians voted. Of those, 44 voted early. Among those early voters, 33 favored keeping Thompson and 11 voted to pull her from office.

At the polls on Election Day, 102 voted to keep Thompson and 50 voted to remove her.

The final tally including both early votes and poll votes had her winning with about 69 percent of the vote.

The recall effort centered around a timesheet and whether Thompson worked the required 100 hours — required according to city code — during November 2010.

Other issues cropped up as the recall drew near, including dissatisfaction that the police department has essentially disintegrated and complaints about road service. In Houston, residents have tried to recall four of the six most recent mayors. Thompson’s was the first recall effort in that string to get as far as an election. Some recall attempts were denied and at least one mayor resigned on the eve of the election to recall him.

Thompson has said she’s hoping the city will be able to move on and do good work now that the recall is over.

—Andrew Wellner