Live updates: Did the Durham bonds pass? Votes now being counted in 2024 election

The votes that will reveal if a pair of bond referendums totaling $200 million will pass are beginning to be counted.

Polls are now closed and the Board of Elections is reporting over 179,518 voters cast ballots in Durham County, most in-person during the early voting period.

That’s 71.3% of the electorate, which is slightly below 2020 turnout.

With only mail-in ballots counted as of 8 p.m., the bonds for parks, streets and sidewalks were both receiving over 70% of the vote, though it’s still early.

The bonds are essentially the only open questions on the ballot this fall in the Bull City. Most other races are uncontested or were decided in the spring primary, since the vast majority reliably vote Democratic.

If they pass, the bonds will increase property taxes to help pay for major upgrades to city parks, streets and sidewalks.

Only residents inside the city limits could vote on the bonds.

The streets and sidewalks money would jumpstart construction of projects already mapped and in the pipeline:

The parks money would be split between two projects:

• An aquatic wonderland at Merrick-Moore Park beside Wheels Fun Park, a former skating rink reopening soon. The plans call for a lazy river, zero-depth entry pool, climbing wall and water slides.

• A pool, connecting trail and new play areas at Long Meadow and East End parks. The parks, on either side of Alston Avenue, were once racially segregated. The plans will “unite them physically and figuratively,” Parks Director Wade Walcutt has said.

Construction at both parks is projected to finish in summer 2028.

Durham county commissioners elected

Three new county commissioners will join two incumbents, after two current board members lost in this spring’s Democratic Party primary and a third chose not to seek re-election

Only five names, all Democrats, were on the ballot for five open seats:

• Nida Allam, incumbent chair

• Wendy Jacobs, incumbent

• Michelle Burton, former president of the Durham Association of Educators

• Mike Lee, former school board chair for Durham Public Schools

• Stephen Valentine, an attorney and former planning commissioner

Incumbents Nimasheena Burns and Brenda Howerton were not re-elected, and Heidi Carter is retiring from the board.