Election night in Austin: where results appear, why they are unofficial, and what could take days

Polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Travis County will start posting results soon after. But the numbers that appear Tuesday night are not final, and in a close council race they may not settle anything for days. Here is how results come in and what our records show about what happens next.

More than 426,000 Travis County ballots were cast during early voting, CBS Austin reported, so a large share of the count may already be in hand when polls close. Our voter guide from Saturday covers hours, locations and the forecast.

Where to find results

• Travis County: The county clerk posts election-night results on its results page, linked from votetravis.gov. The county also runs a live turnout tracker.
• Williamson and Hays counties: Parts of Austin sit in those counties, and their voters' ballots are counted and posted by those counties. The council's election ordinance adopts each county's voting system.

Why Tuesday night's numbers are unofficial

Several kinds of ballots can still be added after election night:

• Mail ballots. The county's election calendar lists Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. as the deadline to deliver a mail ballot in person, and Nov. 4 as the last day to receive a mail ballot by mail. Check the county's mail ballot page for the postmark rules.
• Provisional ballots. Voters whose eligibility cannot be confirmed at the polls can cast a provisional ballot, which is reviewed after the election.
• The canvass. Results become official only when they are canvassed. For city races and propositions, that is a council vote. Last year the council canvassed the November 2025 special election on Nov. 17, two weeks after Election Day.

The county also posts reconciliation forms and post-election audit records on its results and reconciliation page.

What Austin voters are deciding

• Five council seats: Districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9. Our guides: District 1, District 3, District 5, District 8, District 9.
• Bonds: Propositions A and B, for parks and libraries, ordered by the council in August and amended Oct. 8. Our bond explainer has details.
• Charter amendments: Including Prop I, the independent audit measure. The council updated the charter election ordinance on Oct. 8. Our charter explainer covers each one.

Runoffs

A council candidate must win a majority of votes cast in the district to win outright. If no one does, the top two meet in a runoff. Several council races this year have three or more candidates; District 1, an open seat, has six, CBS Austin reported. A runoff date would be set after the canvass, and Austin's recent runoffs have been held in December. Propositions pass or fail by simple majority and have no runoff.

A lawsuit to watch, but not here

Members of a county Republican Party organization in the Panhandle have filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to require hand counts of every paper ballot statewide before results are finalized, KUT reported. Because it is in federal court, it would cover only federal races, the station reported. The suit does not claim that any Texas machine has miscounted votes. The county election official named as the defendant said she had not been served, and a voting rights lawyer told KUT that success was unlikely. Nothing in KUT's report indicates it would change how Travis County counts city races this week.

What's next

• Nov. 3: Polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Results begin posting after polls close.
• Nov. 4: Last day for mail ballots to arrive by mail, according to the county calendar.
• Nov. 5: The current council meets for its first meeting after the election. Our guide to what's left on its calendar covers November, December and the January start of the new council.
• Mid-November: The council canvass, based on last year's timing.