AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Former Austin mayor and state senator Kirk Watson pulled out a razor-thin victory in Tuesday night's runoff election, winning election as the city's next mayor a quarter of a century after his first term.
With all three election counting sites reporting final, unofficial totals just before 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Watson held a slim lead of 886 votes over his opponent, state representative Celia Israel.
Watson gathered 50.3 percent of Tuesday's votes, out of 113,806 ballots cast.
Tuesday's runoff election was forced after neither candidate gained more than 50 percent of the vote in November's general election. Israel led the field of six challengers with 40% of the vote; Watson was a close second with 35%.
The 70,000 ballots cast during early voting in Travis County represent about 11 percent of the city's registered voters. Just over 40,000 ballots were cast on Tuesday in Travis County, where Celia Israel narrowly won the single-county vote.
City of Austin residents in Williamson County cast 3,581 ballots, according to final unofficial results from county elections staff. Watson led WilCo returns with 62% of the ballots cast, gathering 2,231 votes to Israel's 1,350.
Turnout was far more limited in Hays County, where 32 Austin residents cast a ballot - compared to 413 ballots cast in November. Of the 32 ballots cast, Watson gathered 84% from Austin residents living in Hays County.
Three Austin City Council seats also remained undecided after November's election. José Velásquez defeated Daniela Silva in the district 3 race with 53 percent of the final vote total, while Ryan Alter defeated Stephanie Bazan in district 5 with nearly 60 percent of the vote. In the District 9 race, Zohaib "Zo" Qadri defeated Linda Guerrero with just over 51 percent of the vote.
Tuesday's unofficial results are expected to be canvassed on December 27, with the newly elected officials scheduled to be sworn in on January 6.