AUSTIN (KXAN) — Almost 350,000 votes have been tabulated in Austin's mayoral election. With unofficial results fully reported, KXAN is still unable to make a projection in this race.
Incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson currently has 50.01% of the vote. A candidate must receive at least 50% to avoid a runoff. There are still ballots left to be counted, which means Watson could win outright or be forced into a runoff with second-place Carmen Llanes Pulido.
According to the Travis County Clerk's Office, there are three types of ballots still outstanding:
The clerk's office said there are about 6,000 mail ballots that were sent out but have not yet been returned, and it's unclear how many of those will be received by the deadline. In addition, there are about 3,200 provisional ballots that still need to be reviewed before it's determined whether they will be counted.
Late-arriving ballots are also possible in Williamson and Hays County, but those totals are expected to be much lower than in Travis County.
Based on the results so far, Watson is leading in almost every voting precinct in the city. Precinct-level results are not yet available for the portion of Austin in Williamson County, but KXAN has analyzed the results in Travis and Hays counties.
Of the 227 precincts in which at least one vote was cast, Watson is leading in 213. Llanes Pulido is leading in 12 precincts, while two precincts are currently tied.
Watson's strongest support was in west Austin. He currently has a majority of votes in 91 precincts, most notably Travis County precinct 321, where he received 77.6% of the vote. The precinct covers Austin neighborhoods surrounding the city of Rollingwood. Support for Watson waned the further east a precinct is located.
Of the 12 precincts in which Llanes Pulido currently leads, her strongest showing was in Travis County Precinct 193, where she won six of the 12 votes cast. The precinct is in far north Austin, north of Merrilltown Drive between Burnet Road and Bratton Lane.
None of the other three candidates — Kathie Tovo, Jeffrey Bowen and Doug Greco — are currently leading in any precinct.
Watson currently has a majority in two of the three counties that Austin is situated in. Based on unofficial results, he won 57.63% of the vote in Hays County and 50.05% in Travis County. Watson won a plurality in Williamson County — 49.04%.
If the mayoral race does advance to a runoff, it would be held on Saturday, Dec. 14.
