Pool declared victory after the Travis County Clerk reported early voting totals and the first round of Election Day ballots. Pool jumped out to more than 35-point lead after the 37,885 early voting ballots were counted. As of 10:40 p.m., Pool earned a 67.3% share of the 40,304 total votes counted. Her opponent, Morgan Witt, a newcomer to local politics who focused on progressive land-use reform, remained at 32.7%.
It was another sound victory in a one-on-one race for Pool, who earned 72% of the votes in her 2016 victory. Pool was first elected to City Council in 2014 for a two-year term. Pool said she would continue to work to represent the entire district, not just her voters, and acknowledged District 7 is "not a monolith."
"They know me, they support me, they know I'm there for them and they look to me for leadership," Pool said of the District 7 constituency. "Most people recognize we will agree on a lot of issues and disagree on some. They know my heart is in the right place, that I do the work and I go to the mat for them."
Witt, a bilingual education advisor, said she wanted to stay involved with her community but said she is still processing the election results and figuring out her next move.
"As newcomers to the political scene, all of us working full-time with limited financial resources, I'm impressed with the campaign my team put together," Witt said. "This has been an eye-opening experience and a great opportunity for me to be able to connect with my community in many ways."
ORIGINAL STORY: With early voting results in, Austin City Council District 7 incumbent Leslie Pool has set a wide margin between her and her lone challenger, Morgan Witt, in her quest for a second, four-year term representing a swath of North and Central Austin on City Council.
Pool leads Witt 67.8% to 32.2% according to early voting totals released by the Travis County Clerk's Office. According to county data, the 37,885 votes cast during early voting represents 52% of the district's registered voters.
The clerk's office is still counting votes from Election Day, which totaled 50,558 citywide. According to the County Clerk's office, the unofficial number of early voters was 553,290, or 64.7% of the 855,175 registered voters in the county. Election Day votes, as of 6 p.m. represent only 7% of the total votes cast countywide.
Visit communityimpact.com/voter-guide/election-results to see results from all local elections in your community.
Results are updated as of 11 p.m. and are unofficial until they are canvassed and certified by the county clerk. Under Texas election law, the clerk accepts and counts mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 4, if they were sent from inside the U.S., or Nov. 9 if they were sent from outside the U.S.
