Luke leads Frey in Denton County clerk race

Juli Luke, the Republican incumbent, leads Democrat Dale Frey in the Denton County Clerk race with 194,925 votes, or 51.3%, to Frey's 185,196 votes, or 48.7%, according to unofficial results from Denton County Elections. The count is not complete, with 236 of 252 reporting units having reported. Luke leads by 9,729 votes, a margin of 2.6 percentage points, out of 380,121 votes counted.

The Denton Record-Chronicle reported on Nov. 4 that Luke secured her fourth term as Denton County Clerk. The newspaper described the results as complete but unofficial. This was Luke's first contested election since 2018, the Record-Chronicle reported.

What was at stake

The Denton County Clerk serves as the official record keeper for real property, vital statistics, and civil, misdemeanor, probate and juvenile court records, according to the Denton County government website.

The key issues:

• Countywide voting centers: Denton County is the only county in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that requires voters to cast ballots at an assigned precinct on Election Day. Frey's campaign supported switching to countywide voting centers, according to his campaign website. A nonpartisan group called Voting Centers Now! has also pressed the county to make the change, as The Flower Mound Bee reported.
• Court and property records: The clerk manages registry funds and oversees operations across multiple court systems in one of Texas' fastest-growing counties.
• Equal service: Frey's campaign cited a 2015 incident in which the clerk's office briefly delayed issuing same-sex marriage licenses after the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision. NBC DFW reported at the time that Luke issued the county's first same-sex marriage license in late June 2015, saying her oath to uphold the law overrode her personal objection.

A little history

Luke has served as Denton County Clerk since 2015, according to a Texas Woman's University speaker profile. That profile states she had more than a decade of experience in the clerk's office before her election. Frey, a Democrat, previously worked as a web developer and systems administrator at the General Services Administration (GSA), according to his campaign website. He also served as a precinct chair for the Denton County Democratic Party.

What's next

The results remain unofficial until the Denton County Commissioners Court completes the canvass. Under a Texas Secretary of State election advisory, the local canvass for the Nov. 3 election must occur no earlier than Nov. 6 and no later than Nov. 17. Late-arriving domestic mail ballots postmarked by 7 p.m. on Nov. 3 may be counted if they arrive by 5 p.m. on Nov. 4. Overseas ballots from non-military voters may arrive as late as Nov. 9. The deadline to request a recount for a county office is 5 p.m. on the third business day after the canvass.

Election results: Denton County Clerk (Texas General Election, 2026-11-03)

Source: Denton County Elections. Results current as of Nov. 4, 2026, 1:24 a.m. CST. Reporting: 236 of 252. Unofficial results; the count is not complete.

Correction, Nov. 4, 2026: An earlier version incorrectly credited Flower Mound Times for reporting on countywide voting centers. That reporting was published by The Flower Mound Bee.