Every vote matters
Tragic fall prevents mother of Boling ISD trustee candidate from casting deciding vote
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Staff Photo by Benjamin Sharp Delores Svatek, left, gets her blood pressure checked in her GCMC room by Stacey Hickl, a WCJC student nurse.

Grandmother arrived at the polls in time to tie the election, but mom wasn't available to cast the deciding vote after suffering a fall that left her with not one, but two, broken ankles on Election Day.

"It was just heartbreaking for me when I heard the results," Delores Svatek said. She is the mother of Boling Independent School District trustee candidate Jerry Svatek, who tied with Shawn Chilek 161-161 in unofficial results from Tuesday's voting. If necessary, both candidates have committed to a run-off election.

"I kept telling the people in the emergency room (at Gulf Coast Medical Center) to let me go vote and that I would come right back," Svatek said in a phone interview from her hospital bed Thursday.

"But they wouldn't let me."

In discussing her Election Day adventures, Svatek said their family had arranged a temporary transfer of her mother, Mildred Mach, 82, from Memorial Southwest Hospital in Houston to Avalon Place in Wharton to allow her to participate in the election.

She said that while her mother's been staying at the hospital in Houston, she's still a resident and registered voter in the Boling ISD.

She said she had picked up her grandson, Garret, and was at Avalon Place when the fall happened.

"I really don't remember much," she said.

"I was reading something and guess I missed a step. I thought I was walking down the wheelchair ramp so I was caught by surprise. I do remember calling and telling someone to come and pick mom up and make sure she voted while they were loading me in the ambulance."

She added that next time, she'll be there to vote for her son.

"Even if I have to put up guard rails around me," she said. "Both Jerry and Shawn are good boys. They're both Bohemians, both Catholic and both Boling High graduates and real good kids. But you always want your own to win."