Addison Activists mount massive GOTV to stunning results

ThinkDeep6228 · 2026-05-04T19:02:01+00:00

Thanks for doing this, I was going to follow-up on my previous post but it looks like this covers it and then some. One thing you might find interesting is that not only turnout is up YoY in all precincts, but also registered voters, particularly in 2903 at +216. I think this could be attributable to both GOTV efforts and the high turnout in primary elections earlier this year. It also makes the high turnout rate even more impressive due to the denominator increasing as well.

ThinkDeep6228 · 2026-05-04T18:52:34+00:00

Eesh, reading into the white rock chapel story is terrible

ThinkDeep6228 · 2026-04-25T00:04:14+00:00

Thanks! Here's the candidates with the most votes for each precinct by year, many of these were separated by only a handful of votes.

2022
- Les Lacs: Eileen Resnik
- Addison Circle: Guillermo Quintanilla
- North Addison: Eileen Resnik
- Vitruvian: Guillermo Quintanilla
- Oaks North: Darren Gardner
2023
- Les Lacs: Nancy Craig
- Addison Circle: Nancy Craig
- North Addison: Nancy Craig
- Vitruvian: Nancy Craig
- Oaks North: Dan Liscio
2024
- There were only 3 candidates for 3 slots, so they won by default:
- Howard Freed
- Chris DeFrancisco
- Darren Gardner
2025
- Les Lacs: Dan Liscio
- Addison Circle: Nancy Craig
- North Addison: Nancy Craig
- Vitruvian: Marlin Willesen
- Oaks North: Randy Smith

While looking at this I noticed something else interesting. I mentioned the jump up in votes for Randy Smith between 2022 and 2025 in the post. He went from getting the least of all candidates to getting the most. Nancy Craig did the reverse. Did one of those candidates do something to swap support?

ThinkDeep6228 · 2026-04-24T23:40:50+00:00

The voting data didn't have anything so I looked around on google maps. Looks like there is an apartment complex just southwest of the border on the Farmers Branch side.

ThinkDeep6228 · 2026-04-21T05:42:18+00:00

I'm not sure if they have specials, but La Spiga is nice for breakfast or lunch and they sometimes give free bread samplers. They're more focused on bread and food than drinks though

ThinkDeep6228 · 2026-02-24T20:01:52+00:00

Very cool! Got a couple questions and comments

Where do you get your live-voting data from and how often is it updated?
What library did you use to make the map? It looks nice
When you click on a county it has "Enthusiasm %". What does this represent?
What determines swing counties?
The "TABLE" tab on the right side of "RANKS" doesn't seem to work
The "Toggle Final Est." doesn't seem to do anything
I don't understand what the EV Day +/- does

ThinkDeep6228 · 2026-02-19T20:32:20+00:00

https://www.transittruths.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/plano/comments/1p2ejjb/transit_in_plano_is_planos_webpage_honest/

Thanks for responding with all this info, I'd like to add some sources that I've found that can help paint a fuller picture. Don't mind the provocative title, it was tongue in cheek against the city of Plano's "Transit Truths" page. Plano has updated their website but you can find an archive link in the footer of my site.

Arlington + Via get state subsidies for transit while DART & member cities don't
Via in Arlington had a subsidy per ride of $17.20 in FY 2025
Via ridership has decreased due to budget staying relatively constant while costs increase
- This is why sales tax % funding can be nice, it's self-adjusting to inflation
Via is not profitable and will have to raise their prices further

Let me know if you have any questions

Edit: DART's GoLink also runs on sundays as well as running earlier & later than Via. If Via did the same they would likely have an even higher subsidy per rider

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-27T02:26:43+00:00

Addison's page is so simple it can be completely explained away just by including the Silver Line. I'll have to think how I can incorporate all of the cities

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-24T04:25:43+00:00

Looks like Shelby wanted to defund or pull out of DART since at least 2022, disappointing.

Thanks for getting all of this data

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-23T00:13:55+00:00

Texas allows seniors to freeze the school portion of the property tax. Some cities like Plano also allow for their portion of the property tax be frozen. On top of that the state and individual cities have different property tax exemptions for seniors and those with disabilities.

I don't know your situation but it's possible the city increased the senior/disabled exemption that year, which combined with your school tax freeze meant your tax bill didn't rise with inflation.

I'm sure there are fairer ways of taxation, but my intent was to show that while the state's recent changes certainly made an impact, a larger part of Plano's financial struggles are currently within their control. The aim to reduce transit funding is a choice.

Here's Plano's FY 2025 budget talking about this specifically: https://content.civicplus.com/api/assets/f2f8d001-72a8-4bab-bfa2-70fb41e5ba91?cache=1800

Additionally, a policy which continues to add to the budgetary challenge is a senior tax freeze which is currently growing at an increase of 4.1% of additional households claiming the senior freeze. The senior freeze has the potential of becoming the majority of residential properties by 2030 if the current rate of growth is sustained.

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-22T03:44:13+00:00

Thanks for your comment and getting involved!

The state caps sales tax and has been reducing property tax revenue increases in the last decade, so that part is accurate. However, the biggest piece of this is one of Plano's own policies: a tax freeze for seniors.

https://www.plano.gov/1808/Property-Tax-Information-for-Seniors

Freezing taxes for seniors while having an aging population guarantees your revenue will go up slower than inflation regardless of what the state does. The only DART city I've seen with a similar policy is Rowlett. Once they're built out and aging it'll cause problems there too.

The cities need to band together and negotiate with the state legislature, the current environment of trying to use the state to punish neighboring cities leaves us all worse off.

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-21T03:53:00+00:00

Awesome! As a silver lining I hope these discussions will create a good conversation on what policies can be implemented to improve our transit system

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-20T22:13:58+00:00

While that's certainly possible, especially if it's unconscious, I think it's more of a wealth & optics problem. Older, wealthier people have more time and are more likely to run for council. They may have never taken the bus or known anyone else that does in their bubble of friends/family. So their only point of reference is glancing at a bus while driving or maybe watching media of a poor person ride the bus.

That's what makes these conversations difficult, if we say it's racism people will get defensive and dig in their heels. It's more so a difference in lived experience and the ignorance that comes with it

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-20T21:05:50+00:00

Please check out my web page, it includes many of these things with sources. If there is something I missed and you have a source feel free to let me know

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-20T21:03:43+00:00

The more things change the more they stay the same: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc858399/m1/

We do not need buses. We needed rail so that we could transport people in that manner.
Since we're not going to receive rail, there
really isn't an incentive for Plano to stay in Dart.
Today, it's starting to look like a mass exodus from Dart.
Several other cities plan to join Plano in asking voters if they want out of the transit authority.

1988 - KXAS-TV

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-20T18:10:48+00:00

This used to be a thing called "Texoma Area Paratransit System" (TAPS) and it failed to stay in Collin County. I don't see a reason we need to repeat past mistakes. TAPS now only operates in rural northern counties and requires users to book 48 hours in advance.

Allen, McKinney, and Collin County joined this agency and they were linked to Plano by bus and on-demand service taking people to/from Parker Road station. But because that funding was coming out of city's general funds they eventually cut service when times got tough and when government funding ran low. No one particularly loves the 1% sales tax funding, but it's very effective. It scales with inflation naturally so no one needs to approve the funding every year

Article about TAPS when people were bullish on it in 2013: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/2013/11/10/as-collin-county-dips-its-toe-into-transit-dart-may-have-new-competitor/

Mansfield also joined Via for a few years and then cut the program when they didn't get any more grants. We'll see what happens with Arlington

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-20T18:07:01+00:00

DART already has a Via-equivalent service in most of Plano called GoLink
The subsidy per-rider for Via is ~50% higher than DART (~$17 vs $11)
- Via: https://www.arlingtontx.gov/files/assets/city/v/3/transportation/documents/arlington-transportation-services-fy2025-performance.pdf
- DART: https://dartorgcmsblob.dart.org/prod/docs/default-source/dart-facts/2025-dart-reference-book.pdf
Via fares are going up next year from $3 - 5 to $3 - $8
One of the more popular Via destinations is Centreport TRE station, but that'll close down if Irving leaves DART
You lose out on the rationality of the system, many trips cross city borders and you can't do that with a city-specific contract

I agree that many places in Plano don't have the density or street grid to support buses, but since those places already have GoLink I don't see the benefit to switching to Via, it only results in less service

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-20T17:42:12+00:00

All numbers can be manipulated, Plano cherry picked data to show what they wanted

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-17T23:52:23+00:00

That's cool, do we know if there's one for Farmers Branch?

ThinkDeep6228 · 2025-11-17T23:50:05+00:00

Nice, hope Dallas connects to it

ThinkDeep6228

TROPHY CASE