College Station runoff election sees low voter turnout compared to historic turnout in November

COLLEGE STATION, TX — The runoff election for College Station City Council Place 5 has seen low voter turnout since early voting began two weeks ago.

“We only had a thousand people vote early, 1011. We voted almost 900 by mail, so it's a really low turnout,” said Trudy Hancock, Brazos County Elections Administrator.

With roughly 59,000 voters in College Station alone, Hancock says after such a large turnout in the general election, it’s important that voters come out one more time for the two candidates on the ballot

“You know, this is a local runoff. These are our local folks, and we need to come out and support them. They affect our local community,” explained Hancock.

The two candidates, City Council Place 5 incumbent John Nichols and challenger Craig Regan, are on the ballot after neither candidate received 50% plus one of the overall votes in the general election back in November.

“You should know the issues in your community, and you should know who is running and what’s important to them. So you are selecting the group of people that you believe will do the great things in the community that make the communities what they are,” said Bridgette George, College Station resident.

Hancock says after a historic turnout for the general election, there could be a sense of election fatigue.

"I don’t know. I know that I’m not suffering from that because I know the importance of voting,” said George.

Voters who went to the polls Tuesday say voting in local elections is just as important, if not more important, than the general election.

“I think it’s more important to do it [vote] on the local level because this is where you live and that’s where it's going to have the most effect of how you vote,” said George.

The polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday.