Ronald Abruzzese and Jerry Perez will move to a runoff election for the Place 4 Leander City Council seat based on final voting totals in Williamson and Travis counties.

Abruzzese received 27.10 percent of the votes in Williamson County and 39 percent of the votes in Travis County for a total of 342 votes. Perez garnered 18.25 percent of the votes in Williamson County and 9 percent of the votes in Travis County for a total of 213 votes.

Since neither of the top two candidates reached 50 percent of the total votes, Abruzzese and Perez will face off again Dec. 17, with early voting taking place Dec. 2–13, Leander City Secretary Debbie Haile said. Voting will likely only be held at Pat Bryson Municipal Hall, 201 N. Brushy St., for voters in both counties, she said.

Abruzzese said he anticipated a runoff election, and he plans to continue meeting with voters.

"With five people [running for office], it's really hard to get 50 percent [of the vote]. I'm trying to be as open as possible to let people know where I stand on things," he said. "We want to remind everybody when to vote. December is really bad timing because people are going to be distracted with other things. So I may try to meet with a couple of neighborhood associations as well."

Perez, who serves on the city's ethics commission, said he plans to meet with residents in order to garner more votes in December.

"I've seen the way others run their elections, and I want to try a different way. My strategy now is going up and talking to people and knocking on doors, to get them face-to-face because that's where I think I got most of my votes," Perez said. "The weird part about it was, I had a dream there was a runoff. And I had a dream that I won it. It's going to be very close, but I hope that dream comes true."

Dan Michie received 14.58 percent of the votes in Williamson County and 16 percent of the votes in Travis County for a total of 179 votes.

Randy Caldwell drew a total of 160 votes, including 12.88 percent of the votes in Williamson County and 16 percent of the votes in Travis County.

Bob Hanson received 12.34 percent of the votes in Williamson County and 20 percent of the votes in Travis County for a total of 158 votes.

None of the candidates have previously served on Leander City Council. However, Abruzzese is the current chairman of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission, and Caldwell, Perez and Hanson previously ran for an at-large place on the council. The term expires in May 2015.

The special election for Place 4 was called in September after Michell Cantwell announced her resignation Aug. 27 in order to run for Williamson County treasurer in 2014.