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The Republican Party in Williamson County has agreed to let voters cast a ballot at any polling location available in the upcoming primary runoff. A move to precinct-specific voting made for a confusing process for many voters last month in Williamson and Dallas counties. We’ll have more about why the party is reversing course.
Rent prices in Austin continue to fall as more units become available and with fewer people moving to the city. We’ll dig into the latest numbers.
A wildfire out in Bastrop County started last night and spread over 46 acres through Bastrop State Park and prompted evacuations at a nearby RV camping park. We’ll have more on the updates.
It’s the last full week of March — that means it’s time to catch you up on the best new music that you’ll want to add to those playlists.
And both Texas basketball teams are still dancing amid the March Madness. We’ll have a look at how they did it and their chances to keep on dancing.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] The Republican Party in Williamson County has agreed to let voters cast a ballot at any polling location available in the upcoming primary runoff. A move to precinct-specific voting mucked up the process last month for voters in Williamston and Dallas counties. More about why they’re reversing course. And rent prices in Austin continue to fall as more units become available and with fewer people moving to the city. Come hear the latest numbers, that’s on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:35] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:40] Plus, it’s the last full week of March. That means it’s time to catch you up on the best new music that you’ll want to add to those playlists. And both Texas basketball teams are still dancing amid the March madness. Come hear how they did it and their chances to keep on dancing. That is up next here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, and thank you for tuning in to Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Kehannel. It is Monday, March 23rd. Thank you for starting the week with us and for making community-powered public radio part of your day. Vice President JD Vance is arriving in Austin today, potentially creating delays for some drivers caught in road closures for his visit. Closures on Cesar Chavez Street from Red River Street to Brazos Street are expected to last overnight. Until tomorrow morning, so keep an eye out for that. The city is asking drivers to take alternate routes or to take public transportation if possible, and drivers should avoid parking along any part of that route. City officials haven’t yet said why Vance is visiting the area. The Williamson County Republican Party has agreed to return to countywide voting for upcoming primary runoff scheduled for May 26th. This is after widespread confusion and frustration among many voters required to visit assigned polling places on election day. For more about this story, we are joined by KUT’s Williamson County reporter Kaylee Hunt. Howdy, Kaylee. Hey, Jerry. So remind us, why did this change to precinct-specific polling locations happen in the first place, and what was the reasoning from Republican Party officials in Williamson county?
Kailey Hunt [00:02:27] Yeah, so the March 3rd primary election actually marked the first time in over a decade that voters in Williamson County had to cast their ballots at a precinct-based polling location. Up until that point, they had been using the commonly used countywide voting format on primary elections, and the Williamson county Republican Party officials said that they made that change at the request of the state party leadership. They argue that by doing precinct-based polling locations, elections are more secure and therefore they can be more confident in the results.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:06] Okay well how did you see that impact voters in Williamson County specifically back in February on primary election day?
Kailey Hunt [00:03:13] Well, you know, Jerry, since it had been over 10 years, since folks had used this precinct based polling system on primary election day, there’s a lot of confusion. You know, I spoke to voters of both parties all throughout the day. Many, many people that I talked to, you know, went to their usual polling place only to show up and find out that it wasn’t the correct location. It also resulted in a lot of long wait times at locations. Lots of voters I spoke to, including Sonia Hernandez, say they spent more than two hours just looking to vote. And Hernandez actually expressed that frustration to me when I spoke her on primary election day.
Sonya [00:03:57] I don’t know, I just kind of felt like it was purposefully confusing. I think sometimes politicians want to make it hard for people to vote. They’re counting on people getting frustrated and getting up after a while, or having to get to work and having to kind of drop it and maybe come back to it. And that’s just, you know, maybe that’s my cynicism, but I was pretty peeved about it.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:23] Okay, Kaylee, well now the Republican Party in Williamson County is going back to county-wide voting for the primary runoff. What is their reasoning now?
Kailey Hunt [00:04:32] Yeah, well, they say that they heard they heard that frustration and anger among voters. You know, there was a lot of comments made at the following commissioners court meeting just the week after that first primary election day. And yeah, over the weekend, the Williams County Republican Party put out a Facebook post saying that they had agreed to move back to countywide voting that They had heard, they had heard their frustrations.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:00] Okay, so what has to happen now for this change to officially go into effect? I read that post that you were talking about on kut.org where the county officials had agreed to go back to countywide voting, but what actually has to happen for that to become a reality?
Kailey Hunt [00:05:17] Yeah. So Jerry, if you remember, unlike during early voting or general elections, the county’s political parties are responsible for conducting the polling places and the elections, uh, the process on primary election day. And so that includes this upcoming primary runoff in May. And, so basically, to make this change back to countywide voting official, the both Republican, both the Williamson County Republican Party and the Williamston must amend their contracts that they have with the county’s elections department. And that is actually expected to happen anytime now. The Williams County Republican Party told my colleague Olivia Aldridge that they had actually already signed that revision on their contract. And there is a special meeting that has actually been called tomorrow after the regular commissioner’s court meeting to discuss those changes.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:14] All right, well that is KUT’s Williamson County reporter, Kaylee Hunt. She will continue following this story, and we’ll bring you the latest here on Austin Signal. Kaylee, thank you for your time. A new report shows rent costs here in Austin have continued a downward trend over the last few years. The data show rental housing costs have declined so much that the city is now leading the nation in rent relief. KUT’s Luz Moreno Lozano has the story.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:06:52] The data comes from Realtor.com. It shows monthly rents in Austin dropped more than 7% year over year. As of this past February, the median asking rent is $1,357 for apartments up to two bedrooms. That’s about $100 less than the same time last year, according to the company. The data also revealed that rents have seen a significant decline since costs peaked in September, 2022. Joel Berner is an Austin-based economist with Realtors.com, He says rents in the Austin area surged in 2021 and 2022, when more people flocked to the city with flexible work situations. That ignited a building boom. Developers built lots of new apartments to accommodate the demand.
Joel Berner [00:07:34] Really what happened was there was a lot more supply added to the market in the last couple of years and demand slowed down considerably. We have seen a little bit slower in migration into Austin in the past couple of years than we did during the post-pandemic kind of moving frenzy of 2021 and 2022.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:07:54] He says now there are a lot more vacancies. That’s a good thing for renters. It gives them more choices and more leverage to negotiate their rent.
Joel Berner [00:08:01] And so if you have seen your own rent go up, don’t be afraid to make a move or at least threatened to make them move, you know, because what we’re seeing out there is that landlords are really looking for people to come and fill up some vacancies that we’ve got across the city right now.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:08:15] And following rents are good news for all renters, including people who might be lower on the income scale. Professor Jake Wegman studies affordable housing at UT.
Jake Wegman [00:08:24] It does actually help people who, even people who can’t afford the median rent. It may not help them as much as people who can afford the medium rent. Here’s why.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:08:36] Wegmans says if market rate rents are dropping, that means below market rents are doing the same. When the market is softer like it is now, he says landlords are also more open to renting to families with Section 8 vouchers. But some affordable housing leaders say that lots of people are still struggling to afford to live in Austin. Avesta Czar is the executive director of Housing Works, a local affordable housing advocacy nonprofit. So even as housing costs have gone down,
Avesta Czar [00:09:03] Rental housing costs have gone down. We have seen that on the flip side, there are folks who are still struggling quite a bit. Of course, that has a lot to do with incomes being flatlined, job insecurity. There is, of course, a really high cost of living issue that we’re dealing with at this moment.
Walter Moreau [00:09:21] It’s definitely gotten more affordable for families and households that make above $50,000 a year, but folks with really tight budgets are still really stretched.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:09:32] That’s Walter Moreau, the Executive Director for Affordable Housing Nonprofit Foundation Communities.
Walter Moreau [00:09:37] I think it’s great that we’ve had a building boom in apartments and rents have come down and hopefully we can hold on to some of that as long as we can.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:09:47] Overall, rents in Austin are lower than the nation as a whole. Across the country’s biggest cities, median rent is around $1,670 for an apartment of any size. But the decline in Austin likely won’t last forever. Experts say that eventually, the prices will level out. I’m Luz Morana Lozano in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:10] This is Austin Signal, we are coming up on a break, but we wanted to let you know about a wildfire out in Bastrop County. The fire started last night and spread over 46 acres through Bastrop State Park and prompted evacuations at a nearby RV camping park. No injuries or casualties related to the fire have been reported at this time. Bulldozers were actively patrolling the fire’s edge through the morning, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife officials, who say the blaze has been contained to the state park. The Texas A&M Forest Service is now reporting the fire is 55% contained. We have more about it over at kut.org. You are listening to Austin Signal. We will be back after a break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. Our sister station, KUTX, had a wild march so far. We still have a few days to go with South by Southwest shows at Schultz, at the Rivian. We’ve got Rock the Park happening this weekend. There’s just a lot happening here in Austin. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have time to keep us up on the latest music out there. Joining me now to talk more is KUTx’s Joel Aguillon-Lefargue. Joel, thanks for coming on the show.
Joel Aguillon-LaFargue [00:11:28] Yeah, thank you for having me.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:29] Okay well this first one we’re really excited to talk about because a few of us on the Austin Signal team got to check out this artist at an unofficial DiCicco World Showcase that happened last week. That’s Eddie Angel. Tell us a little bit about Eddie Angel and his song.
Joel Aguillon-LaFargue [00:11:43] Yeah, Eddie Angel is a local Austinite, an R&B musician. He is branching more into Hispanic music and singing more in Spanish. He brings the music alive in his live performances. He has this really groovy R& B tone. And this latest track, Ballazo, kind of exemplifies that. It’s earnest, it’s yearning, it is dripping with desire, and really brings those stellar vocals and some soaring guitar riffs to the forefront.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:47] And I believe he is set to release music later this year.
Joel Aguillon-LaFargue [00:12:50] Yes, uh, he has his upcoming EP, Chica-
Jerry Quijano [00:12:54] This next artist is somebody that you and I got to check out together recently at Southby at the Rivian. That is Bayonne. Tell us about their new track.
Joel Aguillon-LaFargue [00:13:03] Yeah, Bayon’s multi-phase kind of exists in like a liminal space, it feels kind of nostalgic but also kind of something you haven’t heard before, it has repetitive synths and like a really like deep subject matter of exploring the multitude of emotions that happen when you lose a loved one. Again he did play at the KUTX Rivian Day Party and has amassed hundreds of streams in the last few weeks since its release.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:56] Speaking of deep material, that’s what I think about when I think of Bill Callaghan. He’s also got a track that is featured on this list. What is this new track?
Joel Aguillon-LaFargue [00:14:04] This new track kind of like starts off more brooding and deeper and talks about like some really intense stuff but it kind of builds up to a more optimistic and brighter and definitely more layered song as the song progresses.
Bayonne [00:14:28] Inside me. Trying to claim my body as its own Invader, enslaver Little headstone
Jerry Quijano [00:14:57] In this new article out from KUTX, there’s six songs featured. We only have time to feature a few of them here on Austin’s Signal, but this last one, tell us who is the artist in this last
Joel Aguillon-LaFargue [00:15:09] This last one is the band of heathens, Take the Cake, they’re a band that started off 20 years ago and their original members Ed Geurde and Gordie Quist is back with this track, Take The Cake, it’s like Southern Fried Americana and they call for listeners to check the rampant materialism and selfishness of the current age.
Band of Heathens [00:15:32] So honey, take a break keep in school. If you love yourself and give a little ground and give it all away, it’ll come back around.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:59] Joel, what else are you working on over at KUTX?
Joel Aguillon-LaFargue [00:16:02] Right now, I am discussing more of the new Austin music you need to know for this month. So some of the songs that we didn’t get to talk about today will be featured on the KUTX social media.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:12] Alrighty, that is Joe Aguilón La Fargue. He is an intern at KUTX and he has been speaking with us about the best new songs from March 2026. You can find more at Kutx.org. Joe, thanks for your time. Thank you.
Band of Heathens [00:16:29] So honey, take a break. You can’t take any more. You can take the cake.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:39] Well, it was a busy weekend for Longhorn sports fans with the second ranked baseball team earning a series victory over top five Auburn. The second ranked softball team extending their winning streak to 26 and both Texas basketball teams advancing to the Sweet 16 in this year’s basketball championship tournaments. For more, we’re joined by QUT’s program director, Jimmy Moss. Howdy, Jimmy. Howdy. It was a very busy weekend. It was indeed. Let’s start with the men’s team because I didn’t anticipate that we were going talking about them. Advancing to the round of 16 last week.
Jimmy Maas [00:17:09] Last week. Three layers to get to this point. So yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:12] Yeah, so what’s been working for them?
Jimmy Maas [00:17:14] I would say timely, what didn’t work for them down the stretch of the season losing five of six and they really needed wins to get safely into the tournament is now kind of there’s a yin and yang. They always say it evens out. Well, now it’s evening out because now those bounces are going for them. Last minute shots against North Carolina State. Timely shooting in their first two rounds and really defeating, there are no. There are no perfect brackets left in any of the major services that are servicing millions and millions of brackets, CSPN, CBS, all those. In fact, Texas’ win over Gonzaga on Saturday night destroyed the last five remaining brackets in Yahoo Sports. And now there are none. So obviously, if you’re in a league and you’re trying to get points, you’re still alive. But Texas isn’t going to hurt you there unless you had Gonzaga winning the championship.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:11] Well, the teams that are normally bracket busters are considered Cinderella’s, right? These smaller teams that come up and usurp the glory from these bigger teams. There’s a lot of discussion over the weekend, at least on social media, about the qualities of Texas as a Cinderella team. This is one of the more successful programs. Not maybe not in basketball, but across the sports spectrum. Do you see this basketball team as a cinderella team?
Jimmy Maas [00:18:34] Look, they are not a single sport, this is all we care about types. They’re not a small college in the middle of the Midwestern plains covered in snow this time of year. It’s hard to call them a Cinderella. They are the biggest earning sports athletic department in the country. They’re doing actually what they probably should be doing year in and year out, based on income level, NIL level, all of that. But they are the lowest seed left in the tournament. And that is saying something. That’s not all that common for double digit seeds to make it this far. Texas has done it as a double digit seed two times prior to now. This is the first time, though, in a long time. Last time was 2007 under Rick Barnes.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:24] Okay, so who are they going up against next, and what are their chances looking like there?
Jimmy Maas [00:19:27] Up next, they’re playing three seed Purdue in San Jose 6-10 on Thursday. Purdue is a good offense, a Big Ten school classic, a blue ribbon NCAA tournament type team. They’re usually in it or in discussions. Yeah, competing. And they are three seed. It could very well be that the Cinderella run, if you’d like to call it that, or the unexpected run of Sean Miller and this Texas basketball team could end this weekend. However, it’s fun while it lasts, right? And I think most Texas fans are probably OK with a second weekend elimination. And I don’t think a lot of people were expecting national championship run in the first year of Sean Miller with the Texas basketball program. Sub. Uh, this note about Sean Miller, though, he’s been to the round of 32, 10 times, won the last nine in a row. I guess this is 10 in a round, so that’s a pretty solid, like if he gets there.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:35] You’re cooked, so. One thing he talked about last week, Jimmy, was playing that extra game sometimes. It just gives you a little bit more momentum. A lot of teams in this tournament have won two games in a row now. His team has won three. Maybe there’s something to be spoken for for that. National championship aspirations were certainly true for the Texas women’s team. They secured their third consecutive Sweet 16 appearance over the weekend. How good have they been? And Madison Booker, how good has she been? They’re, they’re,
Jimmy Maas [00:20:59] They’re doing exactly what you would expect in the, I mean, they are a number one seed. They are expected to make it to a return appearance, at least to the final four. A lot of people, especially after their win over South Carolina in the SEC tournament, are expecting them to do even better, like, you know, that kind of raised the stakes a little bit for them. But they did what you think they would do. They pounded their first two opponents in the opening two rounds of the NCAA tournament. Madison Booker scored 40 points last night and a 100 point outing for the Texas team. Very impressive. And she now has the highest point total for any player in the NCAA tournament right currently. I mean, their game’s happening as we speak. So at any moment, that could be broken. But they will now face the winner of Kentucky and West Virginia later this afternoon. They’re playing their second round game. Two opponents that Texas is very familiar with. Uh sec and former big 12 opponents so um there is uh no no no chance for those expectations to die off as they enter their round of 16 next weekend
Jerry Quijano [00:22:06] Yeah, it’s going to be another busy weekend for Texas sports fans. Texas baseball will also be hosting Oklahoma this coming weekend for a three game series. Texas softball hosting Texas A and M here in Austin for a three game series. So shaping up to be another busy weekend for Longhorn sports fans we can’t make
Jimmy Maas [00:22:23] You can’t make the trip though, it’s in Fort Worth. It’s in Ft. Worth, that is right. 191.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:26] Miles from where we sit right here. There it is, and now I believe they play on Saturday. We don’t know their opponent, but we know for sure that they’re going to be playing on Saturday, so you can prep for that. We have been talking with Jimmy Moss, program director for KUT, and one of the hosts of the Vamos Verdad, the podcast all about Austin FC in this season.
Jimmy Maas [00:22:44] They tied this weekend.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:45] About the World Cup too. We’ll get into that a little bit later. We got lots to go on this week and we hope you’ll join us for Austin Signal all week long. We’ll be back with you at the same time. One o’clock tomorrow. This is Austin Signal.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
