Final Ballots Show Incumbent 8th Dist. Councilman Al Austin Is <nobr>Re-Elected</nobr> With 50.56%, Avoids Runoff By Less Than Two Dozen Votes; Runoffs Remain In Districts 2 and 6

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Final Ballots Show Incumbent 8th Dist. Councilman Al Austin Is Re-Elected With 50.56% of the Vote, Avoids Runoff By Less Than Two Dozen Votes; Runoffs Remain In Districts 2 and 6

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Subsequent Development (April 17, 5:45 a.m.): Councilman Andrews (Running Write-In) Now On Verge Of Avoiding Runoff; Add'l Ballots Tallied Saturday Night (April 16) Show Him With 49.86% And He's Requested Hand-Tally Monday -- Applying 2012 Statutory Change On Counting Write-Ins -- That Could Put Him Over 50%
In 8th dist., Austin further increases his vote margin to 50.97%; Turnbow concedes

(April 15, 2016) -- On Friday afternoon (April 15), the City Clerk's office tallied remaining ballots (vote by mail ballots arriving close to election day and at precinct places plus provisionally cast ballots) in the April 12 city elections...and the final count shows incumbent 8th district Councilman Al Austin is re-elected with 50.56% of votes cast (1,937 votes), narrowly avoiding a runoff.

Challengers Wesley Turnbow finished second with 32.9% (1,261 votes) and Laurie Angel finished third with 16.52% (633 votes.)

Austin needed a majority of votes cast to avoid a runoff. By our unofficial reckoning: 3,831/2 = 1915.5, meaning a majority would be (we presume) 1,916 (and plus one would be 1,917)...so by our unofficial math, Councilman Austin avoided a June runoff by 20 or 21 votes.

(Amnesia file: In April 2014, candidate (now 7th district Councilman) Roberto Uranga avoided a runoff against two other challengers by pulling 50.90% of the vote.)

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Under LB Municipal Code Section 1.21.030, an automatic recount (in which the City bears the cost) is triggered when the difference between the two candidates receiving the most votes is one-half of one percent or less and the difference in the absolute vote is fifty votes or less. Applying that standard, the 8th district race isn't close enough to qualify for an automatic recount...meaning if second place finisher Wesley Turnbow wants a recount, he'll have to request one...and pay for it.

June 7 runoffs remain for Council District 2 (Pearce vs. Gray) and Council District 6 (Andrews vs. Miller), the latter with incumbent Councilman Andrews on the ballot after waging a successful write-in campaign in which Friday's (April 15) tally indicates he drew 48.97% (949 votes); he'll face Erik Miller who finished with 27.24% (528 votes.) (Two other candidates shared the remainder.)

In terms of voter turnout (ballots cast as a percentage of registered voters), voter turnout in the 2nd district was 15.09%; in the 6th district was 9.68% and in the 8th district was 14.24%.

Councilman Austin was re-elected by roughly 7.1% of registered voters in the 8th Council district. 4th district Councilman Daryl Supernaw was re-elected with no voter turnout...since no one entered the race to challenge him.

All Councilmembers have co-equal citywide voting power on budget priorities, spending items, land use approvals, proposed developments and other city policies.