AUSTIN, Texas — Austin voters are set to return to the polls in a few weeks to elect a new mayor and decide on three Austin City Council seats in a runoff election.
However, because this is a runoff election, there will be fewer polling locations this December. The Austin City Council set the final list of polling places earlier this week, which showed that the number of voting sites was cut from 170 sites to 86 for the runoff, according to a report by Community Impact.
As far as early voting locations, the Travis County Clerk's Office on Nov. 29 reported that there will be 17 cites for Austin's runoff election.
Voting advocates point out that polling locations at Austin Community College, St. Edward's University, Huston-Tillotson University and the University of Texas were all cut from the runoff location list, per the report. It's raising questions about voting access for Austin's young voters.
By the time the runoff election comes around on Dec. 13, the fall semester will have ended for the educational institutions, but they will still be in session during part of the early voting period from Dec. 1 to 9.
According to the report, some council members, including District 4 Council member Chito Vela and District 2 Council member Vanessa Fuentes, said college campuses should be considered in planning for elections in the future.
Read the full report by Community Impact here.