Watson won Travis County by 30 votes

A lot of people were surprised by the very close race for mayor, with the results on Dec. 13 showing that former Sen. Kirk Watson had 57,346 votes and state Rep. Celia Israel had 56,460 – just 886 fewer votes. Israel won Travis County by 17 votes but Watson won Williamson and Hays, giving him the job. However, when the provisional ballots for Travis County were counted and the final results posted on Dec. 20, Watson was 30 votes ahead of Israel in his home county. The final count in Travis County was 55,262 for Israel and 55,292 for Watson, proof once again that every vote counts. Neither campaign responded to a request for comment by the Monitor’s deadline.