Election Resources
News 8 Austin taped a series of candidate forums for the upcoming Austin City Council and mayoral election. View each of the forums in its entirety: • Place 1 • Place 2 • Place 6 • Mayor • For election information by county, visit the News 8 Election Resources page.

More than likely very few Austin residents will actually be pushing the red button that says "cast ballot" on Saturday.

"[It] doesn't look like more than about 48,000 people are going to vote," political expert Peck Young said.

That's less than 10 percent of Austin's total registered voters.

"This election has just not been that exciting of an election," Young said.

Young knows a thing or two about local elections. He's the director of Austin Community College's public policy and political studies department. He's also had his hand in helping people get elected to Austin City Council for more than 30 years.

"The average voter out there, of the half-million or so that are registered in this city, most of them probably don't even know there's going to be an election on Saturday," Young said.

In a random sampling, about half of the people News 8 spoke to do know Saturday is Election Day, but very few said they were going to actually vote.

		WATCH THE VIDEO
	Austin Election News 8's Reagan Hackleman speaks to Austin residents about the upcoming local election.

"[It's] pure laziness," Austin resident Amy Rudd said. "A lot of people just can't be bothered to come out, they don't know a lot about the candidates so they don't know who they would vote for even if they did go out."

Austin resident Anthony Sasati said he probably won't head to the polls Saturday. When asked why he won't be voting, Sasati said, "I'm not well informed about the candidates."

According to the Austin City Charter, each candidate by law can raise only $350 from a single person. According to Young, that is a huge reason why voter turnout is so low.

"We ought to have enough money for these politicians to be able to put out there what they stand for, and also so they can debate with their opponents," he said.

	Less than 10 percent of Austin's total registered voters are expected to vote in Saturday's election.

"Everybody is so proud of the fact that the last presidential race we had record breaking turnout. Well, it wasn't an accident we also had record breaking amounts of money spent."

The only record Austin could break this weekend is the number of people who did not vote.

Polls open at 7 a.m. Saturday and close at 7 p.m.