Austin mayoral race still too close to call with Travis County ballots counted; Race comes down to Williamson County
AUSTIN (KXAN) — More than a week after Election Day, Travis County ballots have been unofficially tallied, after a new round of results was posted Wednesday. It’s still not enough for KXAN to call the Austin mayoral race — which means it will come down to Williamson County voters.
Williamson County is expected to do its canvass around Nov. 15, according to the clerk’s office, and the deadline set by the Texas Secretary of State to finalize results is Nov. 19.
There are 3,737 outstanding provisional ballots in Williamson County, according to the clerk’s office, but the majority of those will be in parts of the county outside of Austin city limits. In the unofficial results, only 5.3% of ballots cast in Williamson County were in Austin.
Travis County posted 905 new ballots Wednesday evening. Of those, 355 people voted in the Austin mayoral race. With those new ballots, Watson is still sitting at 50.01% of the vote putting him at 175,071 total votes — 21 votes above the runoff threshold, based on the current vote total.
Watson needs more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff with second-place candidate Carmen Llanes Pulido. Should there be a runoff election, you would need to go back to the polls in December to vote for mayor again. Election Day for that election would be December 14.
Hays County also reported its official results. Only one new vote was added in the Austin mayoral race, for Jeffery Bowen.
KXAN couldn’t make a call on election night, or the days following, because the race was simply too close to call. Incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson went into the early morning Wednesday with 50.01% of the vote. A candidate must receive more than 50% to avoid a runoff.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
