A quiet election marked by low voter turnout resulted in a win for incumbent Rodolfo “Rudy” Castillo in his bid to keep his District 4 seat on the McAllen City Commission.

“I’m very satisfied with my community that came out and voted. It feels good. It feels good,” a jubilant Castillo said shortly after McAllen posted unofficial election results on the city’s Facebook page Saturday evening.

“Now, este, this feeling of goodness is we’re gonna work harder,” Castillo added.

Castillo garnered a total of 279 votes to challenger Javier Salazar’s 66.

Salazar good-naturedly congratulated his opponent after learning of the results.

“We look forward to working with Rudy to advance the issues that are important to the community,” Salazar said. “It doesn’t really matter who holds the position as long as we get things done in south McAllen.”

Just 261 people in the south side district cast a ballot during the early voting period, which ended on Tuesday.

Another 85 cast a ballot at the Palm View Community Center on Jordan Avenue on Election Day Saturday, according to unofficial polling results released by the city.

All election tallies remain unofficial until canvassed by the McAllen City Commission.

The low voter turnout is something both candidates remarked on as they spent the final hours of Election Day campaigning outside the community center.

Salazar estimated that approximately 10,000 people are registered to vote in District 4. With only a few hundred showing up to the polls, residents are sending a clear message.

“That is 9,500 people saying, ‘You know, we don’t want to go vote. We don’t trust you. What’s going to change?’” Salazar said. “That’s their way of saying, ‘We’re very unhappy with the politics.’”

Similarly, Castillo referred to the low turnout as “disappointing.”

“Sometimes, they’ve lost a lot of trust,” Castillo said of the dearth of active voters.

“That’s one of the things we have to battle — try to get them educated more that we really need to vote. If you want to get heard, you want your voice to get heard, we need to vote,” he added.

With the win under his belt, Castillo said one of his goals over the next four years of his term is to try to bring back the polling place options southside residents used to enjoy.

District 4 previously had three additional polling places in addition to the Palm Valley Community Center, Castillo said.

Another priority for the newly…