Overview
- Early tallies released Wednesday night show a divided outcome with both conservative- and clean-energy–backed candidates leading or winning seats, and SRP plans to certify results April 13.
- Chris Dobson is the unofficial pick for president and Barry Paceley for vice president, while Krista O’Brien and Kathy Mohr-Almeida lead high-profile board races over Turning Point–endorsed challengers.
- Turnout surged for Tuesday’s election after SRP reported about 35,000 ballot requests and more than 22,000 early votes five days before polls opened.
- Only eligible landowners can vote in SRP elections and many races use acreage-weighted ballots, which gives larger landowners more voting power than typical one-person, one-vote systems.
- The stakes are high because SRP’s boards set power and water rates for more than two million people and will guide investments as the utility says it must double power capacity to serve growth and energy-hungry data centers, drawing heavy attention from Turning Point Action and the Jane Fonda Climate PAC.