- Today on Austin InSight, a recap of key state and local elections, including surprising results in the Austin mayor and city council races.

- [Laura] Plus, making voting more accessible for the disabled community.

And we spotlight some local filmmakers making a big splash at the Austin Film Festival.

- Austin InSight starts right now.

- [Announcer] Support for Austin InSight comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) - Welcome to Austin InSight.

I'm Laura Laughead.

- And I'm Danielle Banda.

Thank you so much for joining us for our second episode ever of Austin InSight.

- And what a time to have our second episode ever.

I'm sure many of you all were up late Tuesday night watching all the election results come in.

I know, we definitely were.

- Yes, there's a lot to dive into today for sure.

- Absolutely.

So let's go ahead and get started with the election and how Texans and the Austin area voted.

While the reelection of Donald Trump may come as a shock to many, Texas voters delivered no surprises giving Donald Trump the state's 40 electoral votes with a substantial lead over Democrat Kamala Harris.

- [Danielle] In the US Senate race, incumbent Republican Ted Cruz defeated Challenger Colin Allred with a comfortable lead of about 8%.

And here in Austin, the outcome of the mayor's race is too close to call.

Incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson may have the 50% plus one vote threshold that he needs to avoid a runoff, but the vote count is still too close to say for sure, and with several thousand provisional and mail-in ballots to count and just noting that our voting data is as of our recording time for this program.

- We'll have more on the city elections later in our program.

But first, let's discuss how Texans voted in this election.

(bright upbeat music) Joining us now is James Barragan, politics reporter for the Texas Tribune.

James, thank you so much for being here with us.

- Nice to be with you.

- Well James, you know, there was a lot of energy and excitement, right, in recent weeks about the Cruz-Allred race.

Democrats have seen this as a battleground for many years, famously like with Beto O'Rourke six years ago, and already even got a very late stage show of support in Texas from Vice President Kamala Harris.

So national party groups clearly pouring millions in this, but the results ultimately national outcome, it seems the Democrats drowned in a sea of red.

So, any thoughts on why or what trends did you see?

- Yeah, it's hard to overstate how disastrous this is for Texas Democrats.

They really seem to try to convince people that this was a competitive race, but in the end it's looking like nine points, almost double digits in that Cruz-Allred race.

And it just, we saw early on from the early vote that Allred was underperforming Beto O'Rourke's number six years ago in almost every major county.

That just is not good enough and that proved to be sort of the pattern for the rest of the night.

- And you know, it was really hard for the last few weeks, right, to escape all their ads just in close succession on TV.

Allred really made a point to try to attack Cruz on the topic of the abortion ban and then went on the offensive regarding the border.

And then conversely, Cruz tried to attack Allred on the issues of transgender issues and inflation.

And so that being said, what do you think proved to be ultimately the deciding factor for voters in this election?

- Yeah, I mean, it's clear that he was trying, Allred that is, was trying to reach out to moderate and independent voters and he spent most of his campaign doing that.

He really tried to turn it on in the end to go after the Democratic base, but it just seemed like too little, too late.

I think the deciding factors were obviously the economy, it's the top issue for a lot of people.

And in Texas, obviously immigration, but the transgender issue also, Ted Cruz hit him hard on it and he talked about how that was one of his favorite issues.

I think it really did call an Allred in.

- And another interesting trend that we saw in this election is a trend, a generational shift in South Texas, namely amongst Hispanic voters.

Can you talk about that more?

- Yeah, pretty remarkable shift.

I mean the Rio Grande Valley went for Trump in the major counties, Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr.

It just is pretty remarkable though that has been a Democratic stronghold and Trump won, I think by four points last time I checked.

It is hard to overstate what a shift that is and I think we're gonna have to write more stories, interview more people to figure out why that shift is happening.

But it does seem to be solidifying there.

- Absolutely, even on a national scale that was remarkable to other states and other reporters.

And shifting now to the Texas legislature, governor Abbott was quite successful in the spring primary season in helping oust Republican lawmakers who opposed his agenda, chiefly the school vouchers policy, which would allow public funds to be used for private school tuition.

But by some counts, he still needs a few more votes to get that bill passed.

So, did the governor pick up enough seats?

- Yes, absolutely.

And he was very confident on election night saying we have more than enough votes to pass school voucher legislation.

I think in the same way that it is a disastrous night for Texas Democrats, it's a very joyous night for Texas Republicans.

They cleaned up, they won seats in the house, they reversed all the judicial pickups that Democrats had in 2018.

Republicans once again reasserted their dominance here in Texas.

- And were there any other legislative races that you were closely watching here in the Austin area?

- Well, there was one with Caroline Harris Davila in Williamson County that people had said that that might be a sneaky surprise race, but it ended up being a very, very easy win, again, following the trends of victories for Republicans.

- Well, James, thank you so much for your astute analysis.

James Barragan with the Texas Tribune.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- [Danielle] Let's turn to local elections now.

As we mentioned, the unofficial results show incumbent Austin Mayor Kirk Watson with 50.01% of the vote.

If that holds through the final, official results show that he would be reelected to a third term.

But it's much too close to say for sure.

In a race with five candidates, challenger Carmen Llanes Pulido won at 20.4% making her the challenger to Watson should the official vote count result in less than a 50% majority vote, - [Laura] It is such a close race.

Let's take a look now at the five City Council races.

In District Two incumbent Vanessa Fuentes easily won reelection.

In District Four, Jose Chito Vela was reelected.

In District Six, challenger Krista Laine defeated incumbent Mackenzie Kelly, an interesting race there where some key Democrats actually supported the Republican incumbent Kelly.

- District Seven, an open seat with six candidates appears to be headed for a runoff between Gary Bledsoe and Mike Siegel.

Lastly, in District 10, Marc Duchen has a narrow lead over Ashika Ganguly.

Joining us now is Luz Moreno-Lozano, City Government Reporter for KUT News to help us better understand the city election results.

Thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate you.

- Thanks for having me.

- Absolutely.

Well, you know, a razor thin margin for Kirk Watson, he has more than twice as many votes as the second place challenger, but way too close to declare a victory today.

So, do you happen to have any thoughts on what areas of the city were where maybe he perhaps underperformed?

- You know, I think it's hard to say at this point.

You know, we are still looking at and evaluating some of the results from late last night that came in pretty late.

But there are still some uncounted provisional and mail-in ballots that are gonna be the difference in this race for Kirk Watson.

- Okay, very interesting.

So do you or maybe how do you see short runoff campaigns shaping up and what are the key differences between Watson and Llanes Pulido?

- I think the housing is the biggest difference.

You know, I talked with both of them, I talked with him last night, I talked with her this morning.

I think both of them were very prepared for a runoff election.

Mayor Watson has talked about continuing his message of getting things done at City Hall.

How do we continue to move forward in these changes around land development and public safety?

And Carmen has come in and decided that she has a different idea of what affordability and affordable housing look like, and I think that's gonna be the difference for them in this race.

- All right, good to keep in mind.

So let's go ahead and talk about city council where there will be a few new faces.

Specifically we wanted to get your take on district six, okay, where incumbent Mackenzie Kelly lost to challenger Krista Laine.

I mean these races are ostensibly nonpartisan, but Kelly, who is a conservative, had backing from some pretty influential Democrats.

So can you tell us a little about that?

- Yeah, they were very supportive of her decision not to vote with some of these land development code changes.

She was one of the few votes against the changes that we've seen over the last several months and they were very vocal about that and their support for her.

We were very surprised to see how that race shaped up and it was very close.

I mean, it was several thousand votes that made the difference in that race.

- Yeah, for sure.

I mean, do you see any seismic shifts for city council overall when you're looking at these results?

Will they be maybe more pro-development or less, more progressive or less?

What are you seeing there?

- I think, as a whole, the city council makeup will be somewhat the same.

We saw Vanessa Fuentes and Chito Vela get reelected last night.

Krista Laine has been very supportive of the changes that the land development code has been, that of the land development code changes.

Marc Duchen was, yeah, he kind of more aligned with Alison Alter and so, I think he know he will be about the same.

The big race will be or the big decision will be in the District Seven race where we're gonna see a runoff between Mike Siegel and Gary Bledsoe.

- Okay.

Well, we're definitely gonna keep an eye on that.

But as far as a runoff race in the mayoral category, what are you seeing?

What are you thinking?

What do you think we should be keeping in mind?

- It's gonna be close.

- Okay.

- You know, I talked with Carmen this morning who basically said it's not over till it's over.

Even if it comes down to a few, literally a handful of votes, I think this is gonna be very close.

And I think both candidates have learned a lot about what constituents are concerned about and listening to how they can improve the city, whether that's through housing, public safety.

I heard a lot about critical infrastructure and workforce development, and how do we not only develop jobs but get people into those jobs.

So yeah, we'll see how it plays out.

- Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for breaking all of this down for us.

We really appreciate your time.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

(bright upbeat music) - Well, next we'll dive into voting operations as well as turnout.

Joining us now is Natalia Contreras, reporter for Votebeat Texas, which is a nonprofit news outlet focused on election administration.

Thank you so much for being here, Natalia.

- Hi.

Thank you for having me.

- Absolutely.

Well, you know, you've looked at the numbers.

How was voter turnout in Texas compared to previous election cycles?

I mean, were there any surprising patterns or trends?

- Unfortunately, there weren't.

Most Texans vote early.

A lot of them cast those early ballots during those two weeks.

We had a little bit over 9 million voters who did that during early voting.

And just on election day, a few million more but we're not gonna surpass anything.

It's not gonna be different from what we saw in 2020.

We are still waiting for official results.

So, that number of voter turnout, which right now stands at 11 million might go up slightly, but it's not much different from 2020.

- Okay, well, that's very interesting and this is the first election since the Dobbs decision challenging Roe versus Wade.

So, how was turnout among women in Texas and were there other key demographic surprises or anomalies?

- I think that's still very early to discuss because right now we're still getting million ballots in.

We're still getting those numbers in.

So I would just wait a little bit but I mean I was in College Station, Texas during election day.

I saw a lot of people come out, a lot of just people from different backgrounds.

A lot of students were waiting in line to College Station as a college town.

So I think it's a little bit too early to tell right now, but as we get official results and more data coming in, I think we'll be able to tell how that played out in the state.

- All right, well, what obstacles impacted polling local Central Texas areas?

Were there any statewide problems that you think that we'll be hearing about in the coming days?

Perhaps any litigation to come that we can possibly foresee?

- So, locally election day went relatively smoothly across the state.

Election officials reported very minor issues like technical issues at the polls, maybe poll workers having issues with voting equipment, paper jams, those kinda things that were resolved early on.

Voters were able to cast their ballots.

There was no reports of any type of violence.

We saw one instance of that during early voting in San Antonio, but we didn't see any of that during election day.

Like I said earlier, I think we still could see litigation, we could still see recounts because other than the presidential race, we had a lot of local and municipal elections out there.

So, there could still be requests for recounts.

We still need to certify the results, so we're gonna be waiting for that.

- All right, well, Texas is considered a low voting state.

In fact, in only one presidential election since 2008 has more than 50% of Texas' voting age population cast a ballot and we rank near the bottom compared to other states in election participation.

So why do you think that is?

- So, Texas doesn't spend as much money as other states in voter education and we don't have online voter registration yet.

We don't have same date registration.

Our state unfortunately restricts who can vote by mail.

So there's a lot of things that could be changed as far as voting reform, voting policies to make it easier for Texans to vote.

I mean, like I said, our turnout is still relatively low compared to the 18 million registered voters that we have.

But then there's still a lot of people out there who are voting population who are not registered to vote.

So these could play into those reasons why some people just don't head out to the polls.

- All right, well thank you again so much for being here, Natalia, and sharing that information.

- Thank you.

(bright upbeat music) - For most of us casting a ballot is no big deal.

We hop in the car and head to a nearby polling place.

Maybe we wait a bit in line, but easy enough.

But what if you're disabled, using a wheelchair, relying on public transportation?

- For disabled voters, participating in our democracy is fraught with challenges.

Joining us now is our senior multimedia journalist, Blair Waltman-Alexin with a special report.

- That's right Danielle and Laura.

For people with disabilities, they are organizing to improve their opportunity to vote and beyond merely casting a ballot to have their voices heard on important policy matters.

- Yeah!

- [Blair] This voter rally in Central Austin looks a lot like many others that have been taking place around the country.

Attendees enjoy snacks, experts field questions about the voting process.

- I encourage you to make a plan with somebody.

When are you gonna go vote?

How are you gonna get there?

- [Blair] And just generally try to get people excited about the election.

- [Audience Member] All right!

Yeah!

- [Audience Member] Yeah!

- [Blair] But this group also faces some very specific challenges when it comes to casting their ballot and they have particular issues that they want lawmakers to address.

- You go to vote at a polling site and you bring a person of your choosing to serve as an assistant, but you're turned away by poll workers.

What do you do?

- [Blair] This rally is being hosted by Rev Up Texas, a nonpartisan coalition that aims to empower people with disabilities to be more involved in electoral politics.

- You could do a campaign if you were a nonpartisan.

(group laughing) - [Blair] Bob Kafka is a longtime advocate with ADAPT, a local disabilities rights group.

He started Rev Up in 2016.

- We went from the street protesting to legislation, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and now we are starting to move to be much more visible at the ballot box.

- [Blair] Since then it's grown.

There are over 20 state coalitions across the country, but there's also been an increase in ballot access obstacles.

According to the Brennan Center, at least 30 states have passed voting restriction laws since the last presidential election.

Many of those curtail mail-in and absentee voting like a Texas law that limits counties to a single drop-off location for ballots.

But reaching that location can be an all day journey for voters like Nancy Crowther.

- It took me over three hours.

It was several buses.

I don't think the community understands what a burden it is, but I have to trust that my vote was counted 'cause that's the whole goal.

- [Blair] Kafka says that federal laws have improved ballot access overall, but it's hard to make sure that the laws are being implemented statewide.

- Because like in Texas there are 254 counties.

It is very difficult to know are all the counties actually implementing to the letter to help America Vote Act.

And that is what is so difficult.

So, people might have difficulty in terms of poll places that may not be physically accessible or they may be questioned if you bring an interpreter.

We've seen advances in that area.

By no means have we solved all those things.

- [Presenter] Today to speak about why the disability vote is so important.

- [Blair] While ballot access is important, it's not the only thing that Kafka and Rev Up are fighting for.

- Please vote.

But what's more important and what we wanna talk about today is use your power because what do we mean by power?

- [Blair] He wants candidates and other people with disabilities to see themselves as a powerful voting block.

(group cheering) - The bigger issue where we're evolving is to be thought of as an interest group that can influence the outcome of public policy because ultimately your vote needs to convert into something that you want your candidate to do.

- [Blair] A 2022 study by Rutgers University found that there were over 15 million voters with disabilities in the country.

If they voted at the same rate as the overall population, that could equal about 2 million votes.

Enough, Kafka points out, to make a major impact.

- Think about that.

Georgia last election was won by less than 12,000 votes.

If the disability community would vote one way or the other, it could swing that state.

Are the candidates looking at that?

Not yet, but that's what we're promoting.

- If you don't ask for help, you ain't gonna get help.

That's the way I look at it.

- Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

- [Blair] Kafka says there are a number of issues that disabled voters care about, including Medicaid expansion and enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

But another major issue is community integration.

- [Bob] That means live as independently as possible in the community, not be forced to go in a nursing home.

- [Blair] A major factor in whether people with disabilities can stay in their homes and communities is having assistance from caregivers.

- What was yours, what did your card have?

- [Blair] They provide essential services, but the wages are low.

According to Advocate and caregiver Cathy Cranston.

- Under Medicaid funded programs, it is so low they start us at 10.60 an hour and we can in no way compete.

Out there, the free market, they're paying $20 or more an hour.

You need to be mindful when all of these decisions that you're making, you're making it about my life, about the people that I serve.

All these different issues are interconnected.

You can't separate it.

- [Presenter] Thank you.

(group clapping and cheering) - [Blair] Back at the rally, groups join in virtually from across the state.

Even though they may face obstacles, they are excited to make their voices heard in this election and the next.

- By making the disability vote a powerful tool, it will help change what's going on.

- (indistinct) It's a free will.

- The right to vote for the disabled includes addressing their unique challenges so that they have the ability to participate in the process.

And with greater participation, they hope to have greater political impact.

- Blair, thank you so much.

Amazing story.

- Yes, and if you would like to learn more about resources available here in Austin, you can visit the Rev Up Facebook page.

(bright upbeat music) Well for our last story, we'll turn away from politics.

- Austin is home to several high profile film festivals.

One of them, the Austin Film Festival, just wrapped up last week with several locally made films having their world premieres.

This next story is a tale of two of them.

We're here at the 31st annual Austin Film Festival.

This year hometown films are taking center stage.

- Sometimes I just feel like an amalgamation of everything that I was or everything that I liked when I was a teenager.

- [Laura] It's a coming of age and a homecoming on the red carpet for "American Spirit," written and directed by recent UT grad Christopher Yates.

- Premiering the film here just made perfect sense.

- [Laura] The romantic drama follows two UT students who dated in high school and then reconnect on campus one night after a party.

Yates drew inspiration from his own college days.

- I want audiences to see themselves in this film.

These relationships do affect us and I think those formative periods are things that shape us forever.

- [Laura] He collaborated with his former classmates on a largely UT crew.

They shot the movie in just 11 nights one summer.

West Campus has never looked more romantic.

- [Jonathan] When you really like this, like, girl and you're 17 and it's like all new and then she just, like, doesn't like you back.

- [Laura] The stars, Yasmeen Fletcher and Cooper Roth, had never been to Austin before.

- I really, I think like fell in love with the city as we made the movie.

I hope that I get more opportunities to like come to Austin to shoot more movies.

- Some favorite shoots were Jester Hall, the Turtle Pond, and across the street, Kerbey Lane Cafe.

As a UT alum, getting to make this film that is a love letter to where we came of age in college.

So, what did that mean to you?

- It was really cool to come back.

I always wanted to do film in Austin.

I think that's something you think about a lot on campus.

I'm a lot more confident now than I was at UT.

I was kind of a little bit of a dork.

Well, I kind of still am a dork.

- Austin has such a good indie film scene.

I would love to see it receive the resources that somewhere like Atlanta or New Orleans has.

- [Laura] A sentiment shared by actor Tye Sheridan, originally from East Texas.

- Well, I may be biased, but Texas is obviously the best.

I think it's a shame that people get to make movies about Texas, but they have to go to other states to do so.

And I'm always advocating to make more movies here and hope we get to do that in the future.

- [Laura] Another movie with a local cast and crew making a splash was "Texas Cult House," a horror written and directed by Julia Barnett and starring Adrianne Palicki.

- I've never felt home anywhere and so, when I moved here during "Friday Night Lights" it just was like, this is my home.

And I think all of us had that feeling.

- We shot everything on my own property.

You wouldn't know it if you saw it.

And you know, as independent filmmakers, we have to be so scrappy.

- [Laura] Producer Mindy Raymond has lobbied for film incentives in Texas for years.

We just need to make sure that Texas is as competitive in the filmmaking world as it is in every other business.

- [Laura] Her son, Drew, acted in the film.

- It's like surreal to like just know that I'm in a movie.

- But I did have to ask the horror writer director one last question.

What do you think is it about Texas that makes it such a great place to tell a horror story?

- I think it could be kind of the wide open spaces, right?

So like anything could be lurking behind that bush or who's living in that creepy house behind 200 acres, you know?

That kind, I think it's that.

- And as for the film "American Spirit," all about reconnections in life, I actually went to school at UT with a number of them.

And in a way we got to reconnect through this story.

They really did the impossible making West Campus look romantic and immortalized onscreen.

Coming up in December, we're going to profile another local film created by an Austin husband and wife filmmaker duo.

Well, that's our show.

Thanks again for watching.

- We'll see you next Thursday at 7:00 p.m. right here on Austin PBS.

And don't forget, you can stream each episode on the Austin PBS app.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) (bright upbeat music continues) (bright upbeat music fades) - [Announcer] Support for Austin InSight comes from Sally and James Gavin and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(quirky flute music)