The Road to 10-1: Filling the Ballot

As of Monday morning, Aug. 11, 29 citizens had filed formal ballot applications for the Nov. 4 municipal election: four for mayor, and 25 spread through the 10 City Council districts. That represents just over 40% of the 72(net) folks who have previously filed campaign treasurer designations.

We can expect a flurry of ballot applications this week, prior to the Monday, Aug. 18, 5 p.m. deadline – either that, or a flurry of de facto withdrawals (probably both). At any rate, by Tuesday’s postings by the City Clerk’s elections division, we should know certainly who will be on the city of Austin’s November 4 election ballot.

Thus far, there are four official candidates for mayor: Stephen Adler, Ron Culver, Mike Martinez, and Randall Stephens. Four more are waiting in the wings. Presumably, Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole will file this week, possibly Nicholas Lucier, Todd Phelps, and perhaps Stephen P. Fabian (who filed a campaign treasurer designation last week). We’ll update as the week proceeds, at the Elections page.

The formal ballot application includes either a $500 fee, or more likely a petition with the number of signatures determined (under state law) as a small percentage of the number of city or district votes for mayor in the previous election. This year, mayoral candidates need 244 unique signatures; for Council candidates, the number required ranges from 25 in several districts to as many as 52 (District 10).

In eight of the 10 districts, at least two candidates have officially filed, although in Districts 2 and 9 we don’t yet have an official race: Delia Garza (D2) and Kathie Tovo (D9) are the sole candidates, situations likely to be revised this week. Most districts have at least three contestants, and in District 7, five of the eight declared candidates are thus far on the ballot.

Also in District 7, Zachary R. Ingram filed a CTD last week. (Newsdesk is tracking him down.) New candidate additions include Kent Phillips in District 3, who ran as a Libertarian candidate for state senator in 2010, and for state rep in 2012. (He’s filed a CTD.) In District 5, David Senecal, a computer systems tech at the Internal Revenue Service, has filed both a CTD and a ballot application. Readers can learn more about both candidates in the profiles posted by district at the Elections page.

We expect the information and the numbers to change rapidly this week. Newsdesk will update regularly here, and at the Elections page.