Arreola leads Del Rio mayoral runoff by 9 votes, unofficial count shows

A nine-vote edge put Al Arreola in position to keep Del Rio’s mayor’s office, but the race was still not settled after Val Verde County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy announced 67 mail ballots remained outstanding outside the courthouse. The unofficial tally gave Arreola 931 votes to Efrain V. Valdez’s 922, a margin so narrow that the next count could still decide who controls the city’s agenda.

Chapoy read the numbers on the front portico of the Val Verde County Courthouse just before 7:30 p.m. on June 13, with supporters, media members and Valdez’s family and friends gathered nearby. She said 1,859 ballots were cast in all, including 1,853 votes from Del Rio residents in the runoff. The gap between the total ballots and the candidate totals came from overvotes and undervotes, Chapoy said. The live results posted by Decision Desk HQ matched the county clerk’s unofficial count.

The remaining mail ballots had to be postmarked by June 13 and received by Monday at 5 p.m., leaving a small but still meaningful path for the result to shift before certification. Chapoy also said the slim margin would trigger a manual recount, though Valdez would need to petition her office for that review. That makes the coming days decisive for Del Rio, where the certified winner will inherit the mayor’s chair and the leverage that comes with it in appointments, budget votes and the council’s day-to-day direction.

The runoff was the latest chapter in a race that first opened on May 3, when Arreola led the field with 829 votes, Valdez had 792 and Jim DeReus had 775, forcing a head-to-head runoff. The City of Del Rio identified the runoff candidates as Alvaro “Al” Arreola and Efrain V. Valdez. Val Verde County’s election calendar had already set a tight timeline, with voter registration closing on May 14 and ballot-by-mail applications due June 2.

Arreola enters the final count with a long record in local public life. The city says he served on the San Felipe Del Rio C.I.S.D. Board of Trustees from 1997 to 2003, on the Del Rio City Council from 2010 to 2014, on the Del Rio Economic Development Corporation from 2018 to 2021 and on the Val Verde Regional Medical Center Board from 2018 to 2022. His city biography says he was born in Ciudad Acuña, moved to the United States in 1967 and graduated from Del Rio High School in 1977. The city council page lists his mayoral term as elected June 18, 2022, with a term expiring in 2026, which is why this runoff effectively decides whether he stays in office.

Chapoy also used the courthouse announcement to push back on a false claim circulating about election administration, saying county elections were still operating normally. The next steps in the ballot count, and any recount request, will determine whether Arreola’s nine-vote lead holds or whether Del Rio’s mayoral race is headed for another turn.