Incumbent Jimmy Flannigan, first elected to the seat in 2016, is the top combined vote earner in Travis and Williamson counties, having collected 40.31% of cast ballots.
“I’m excited and energized. [I am] the top vote-getter in the race. ... We’re going to take this momentum into the runoff,” Flannigan told Community Impact Newspaper Nov. 3.
Challenger Mackenzie Kelly looks likely to face Flannigan in the Dec. 15 runoff, trailing the incumbent by only a couple thousands votes across both counties. According to vote totals from Travis and Williamson counties, Kelly picked up 33.39% of District 6 votes, as of 11:05 p.m.
“I definitely think people are fed up with what's going on at City Hall, and they voted all the way down the ballot,” Kelly said Nov. 3, shortly after speaking to a crowd of Travis County Republicans at Pinballz Lake Creek in Northwest Austin. “I'm not entirely surprised I made it as a conservative candidate into the runoff. ... We’re taking back our turf.”
Candidates Jennifer Mushtaler and Dee Harrison continue to lag behind Flannigan and Kelly in the polls, collecting 19.09% and 7.21% of District 6 votes, respectively.
ORIGINAL POST
With no candidate garnering more than half of early vote returns from Travis and Williamson counties, the Austin City Council District 6 contest looks like it is heading toward a runoff election in December.
Incumbent Council Member Jimmy Flannigan leads all District 6 candidates with 13,186 votes, good for 40.5% of the 32,560 votes currently reported between Travis and Williamson counties.
Lifelong Austin resident Mackenzie Kelly is trailing Flannigan with 33.2% of votes reported, according to vote totals from the counties. If these returns hold, Flannigan and Kelly would face off against each other in a Dec. 15 runoff election.
Local physician Jennifer Mushtaler is currently placing third in the vote, collecting 19.16% of early votes. Dee Harrison, a former state and local emergency management officer, has earned 7.13% of the vote so far.
The Travis County Clerk's office is still counting votes from Election Day. 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. As of 6 p.m., the clerk's office said 43,000 voters had cast ballots on Election Day.
Results are updated as of 7:31 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.
