Election night is over in Texas,
but we're still figuring out exactly
what happened yesterday in
Williamson County.
Some voters waited in line for
hours, only to be told they'd
have to go to an entirely different
polling site to vote.
Others made an after-hours trip to
cast a ballot, only find out that
their vote may not be counted.
Our team of county reporters was
covering the most important races
here in Central Texas.
They will be joining us live in
studio with their latest reporting.
That's coming up on today's
show
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
And the City of Austin is ending a
rental assistance program,
a by-product of a trimmed budget.
More about the help that's going out
for the last time and the future of
other assistance programs.
That's up next, right here on
Austin Signal.
Howdy out there, this is Austin
Signal on listener powered public
radio, KUT News.
It is Wednesday, the fourth day
of March.
We're glad you're here with us.
Election night is over, but we're
still figuring things out and some
radio hosts are still waking up this
afternoon.
So bear with us and thank you for
tuning in, spending part of the day
here with us.
We're going to jump right in.
I am here live in the studio
with the gang of KUT County
reporters. I'm going to go one by
one. We have Williamson County
reporter Kaylee Hunt.
Hi, Kaylee.
Hi Jerry.
KUT's Travis County reporter Katie
McAfee, howdy.
Hey. And KUT Hayes
County reporter Lee Walden, howdee.
Hi!
All right, Kaylee, I'm going to
start with you because Williamson
County was part of the national
story last night.
Sure. Why was that the case?
Yeah, so yesterday's primary
election basically marked the first
time in over a decade that
Williamson County voters had to cast
their ballots at what
they call a precinct based polling
location.
And that's because the county's
Republican Party decided that they
no longer wanted to offer countywide
voting and because of state law,
the county is Democratic Party had
no choice but to follow.
And so since people had been so used
to countywide polling over the past
10 years or so when they showed up
to vote.
Yesterday, a lot of folks realized
they were at the wrong polling
location.
And a lot of folks were surprised.
Were you surprised that there was,
you know, these kinds of delays,
these kind of issues?
You know, I wouldn't say I was
surprised.
We knew about this change since
January, and the county,
I believe they told me they spent
about a million dollars just trying
to communicate all
of these changes to voters.
So we knew ahead of time that it was
going to happen.
And there were some
warnings from the county's
Democratic Party Chair, Kim Gilby.
She said from the get-go that
there were going to be issues.
The county's Republican Party
chair told me that,
you know, she wished folks would
have faith in voters to
find the right polling location.
She actually today, you now, I
finally get a response from her just
about the events yesterday.
She acknowledged that there was some
confusion among voters
about polling locations, but
reaffirmed that she's, you know,
proud of all the election workers
for helping redirect people to the
correct places.
And, uh, she- she-
pretty much squarely
blamed that confusion on
the Democratic Party.
Okay, well, you were at, in addition
to all these precinct-specific
issues that were going on, there
were also a couple of polling
locations in Williamson County that
got extended hours all the way until
10 o'clock last night, and in fact,
one of the polling locations, you
were posted up there the entire day.
Where was that at?
That's right, yeah, I was posted
up at the North
Star. It's a 55 plus
senior living community in
Georgetown, actually just down the
road where I live.
Okay, yeah, because you kept
mentioning like an apartment complex
where the line was making through
And was sneaking through, okay, gotcha.
Right, yeah, so Envision just, you
know, in apartment complex, they had
a central courtyard, and
you know as the night went on and
the lines just got longer and
longer, those folks started to wind
in through the courtyard.
And so that's why I was posted up
most of the night, just chatting
with folks as they
waited in line.
Yeah, and what did you hear from the
people who were waiting in line?
Well, they were
frustrated.
I think that's a nice word to say
about it.
That's a radio-friendly word.
Yes, they were very frustrated
but also committed,
you know.
I asked, you know, there were
of course people, several people
that just got up and left at
some point. They said they, you,
know, just couldn't stay any longer.
They had other commitments, children
to take care of, jobs
to go to.
But yeah, a lot of folks were
very committed to staying in
line. In fact, one of my favorite
moments was late at
night after the polls had actually
closed, initially at 7 p.m.
This was before the extension.
A couple of folks ordered pizza for
everybody and we're passing around
pizza slices in line, so.
Or we had dinner together.
Yeah, it's not an election night
without pizza.
You mentioned that those
polling locations, the hours were
extended to 10 o'clock, but
then you said that you had to tell
some voters that you have to
deliver some bad news, basically the
voters who were at the end of the
line. Tell us more about that.
That's right.
Yeah. So the Texas
Voting Rights Project,
they filed a
lawsuit, they
filed the lawsuit that extended
those polling hours at those two
locations.
Now, there's a new state law that
went into effect earlier in
September of last year, and
it requires that in
the event of a lawsuit like this
during an election, They,
the parties would need to notify the
Texas Attorney General's office
one hour prior
to the hearing.
That failed to happen last night.
And so the Texas attorney general's
office filed a motion to pause that
and they were successful.
So that means people's
votes may or may not count.
Yeah, okay.
Well, that's something that will
continue to unfold and I'm sure you
will be following it.
You did great reporting last night
Thank you for being on the show.
That's KUT's Williamson County
reporter, Kaylee Hunt Thank you
Kaylee. Gonna move over to KUTs
Travis County reporter Katie McAfee
Katie, we were watching a couple of
precinct races for Travis County
Commissioner yesterday.
What ended up happening?
Yeah, that's right. We were lucky to
get election results in Travis
County.
Took a little while, though.
It took a little while.
Certainly, we were better placed
than Williamson County last night.
But yeah, I was watching the
Precinct 2 and Precinked 4 races.
In Precinced 2, which
is incumbent Bridget Shay's seat,
she easily won and
avoided a runoff.
I think she ended the night around
with 57% of the vote.
Okay.
Over in Precint 4, which is
the south, southeast portion
of Travis County,
that race is going to run off.
The two candidates who
will be going neck
and neck in May are George Morales.
He is a former Travis County
Constable for that precinct,
and then Susana Ledesma-Woody.
She is a DelValley ISD
trustee.
The two of them finished the night
pretty much neck and back.
I think George Morales was
ahead by less than 500 votes.
Okay, yeah, so we were watching that
one. I believe George Morales came
out to an early lead whenever
early voting tallies were a
first release and then the race
grew closer and closer as
the night went on.
Can you remind us of the date of the
runoff when that's going to take
place?
Yeah, that's May 26th.
I talked to both Susana
Ledesma-Woody and George Morales
after the election and they kind of
said the same exact thing with
wanting to remind people of when
this runoff election is
because people typically,
voter turnout trails off for
runoffs.
It's not usually great for primary
elections either and then if there's
a runoff, people get voter fatigue,
don't even realize that there is a
run off and they're gonna spend
these next couple months.
Knocking on doors, still campaigning
hard, letting people know that this
fight is not over.
Yeah, that's definitely something to
consider, especially we saw such
high early voting turnout in
Travis County as since the highest
since 2008.
But yeah, historically, people do
not vote in those runoff elections.
So that is something we will
continue to watch and bring you here
on Austin Signal.
That's KUT's Travis County reporter,
Katie McAfee.
Katie, thank you.
Over to our Hayes County reporter,
Lee Walden.
Lee, you were watching a Texas
district race last night that
had a lot of candidates.
We were expecting that this might go
to a runoff when it ended up
happening there.
Yeah, District 21 was expected
to have a runoff, like you said,
there were 12 Republican candidates
for the seat, but
a former Major League Baseball
player, Mark Teshara,
managed to come out on top and
won't have to face a run off at all.
So he will face Kristen Hook
in November, which is the Democratic
primary winner, but
this is a pretty steady Republican
seat, so it's expected that he will
carry it.
Okay a more locally you were
watching a race in Hayes
County I believe it was a Hayes
county judge what happened there.
Yeah, the Hays County judge seat.
It was a, it was, you know, it was
kind of a tight race.
The incumbent Ruben Becerra did
not manage to meet the 50%
threshold.
And he will face a runoff
in May as well against Michelle
Gutierrez Cohen, who
is the current Hays county
commissioner for precinct two.
Okay, well, we will have more
from these great county reporters,
and it is our membership drive right
now. So I will just say, if you
appreciate the reporting they bring
to you, help us keep it going.
Go to kut.org and hit the
donate button.
Lee Walden, Katie McAfee,
and Kaylee Hunt here with us on
Austin Signal. Thank you all for
being here.
The Texas Senate race has been in
the national zeitgeist, and last
night it came to a head in the party
primaries.
The Republican nomination for the
U.S. Senate seat is going to a
runoff.
Incumbent Senator John Cornyn, who's
held the seat since 2002,
will face Attorney General Ken
Paxton. Here is The Texas Newsroom's
Blaze Gainey with the details.
The race was expected to go to a
runoff, that will be held May 26th,
Cornyn gained majority of the vote
but not over 50%.
But the runoff will likely be
different because they typically
have a lot less turnout.
If that holds true, it will likely
favor Paxton, who in his
own words has a lot of radicals
voting for him.
Well, you know, John Cornyn said he
was concerned about a bunch of
radicals who are going to show up to
vote today. It looks like you all
showed up.
This runoff could be what Paxton
needs to knock Cornyn out of his
seat. However, Corny is likely
to run a tough campaign smearing
Paxton for his 2015 indictment
for felony securities fraud and
a 2023 impeachment for alleged
bribery.
And in the Democratic primary for
the U.S. Senate seat, Austin's own
James Tallarico, a Texas House
representative, claimed victory this
morning over Congresswoman Jasmine
Crockett.
The win means he will move on to
face the winner of that Republican
primary runoff.
Let's throw it back to Blaise Ganey,
who was at Tallariko's election
night watch party.
Tallarico took the stage right after
midnight to let his supporters know
that while every vote must be
counted, he was confident in the
outcome.
That was before he was declared the
winner. He used that time to drive
home the reason he ran for the seat.
This is a people-powered movement
to take on this
broken, corrupt
political system.
This is truly a
campaign.
And for the people.
Texas Democrats haven't won a
statewide race in over 30 years,
but polls show Tallarico could break
that losing streak, depending on who
he faces in the primary.
After he was officially awarded the
Democratic spot, he sent out a press
release saying, quote, we're about
to take back Texas.
I'm Blaise Gainey in Austin.
Okay, now we're going to step back a
bit to election day 2025,
when Austin voters voted down
Proposition Q, a proposed rise
in taxes to bolster the city's
budget. The money from the proposed
tax increase was already built into
the city budget, and now as the
city looks at what to cut,
we are beginning to see the
ramifications on that as programs
get axed.
One such program, rental assistance.
For more about that, we're speaking
with KUT City Hall reporter Luz
Moreno Lozano.
Luz, thanks for being here.
Hey Jerry, thanks for having me.
So tell us about the Rental
Assistance Program, what is
it, and how long has it been
happening?
Yeah, you know, the city started
offering this assistance
to pay rent kind of around the
pandemic. You know, when people
started losing their jobs and we
were kind of all shut in at home,
there started to be this
ramifications of like people can't
pay their rent. And so through
federal funding, the city was able
to provide this program for people
in Austin.
And it's, you now, it's hit some
snags along the way.
I think they would run out of
funding and then more funding would
come and they would close the
portal.
So this has been kind of ongoing
since about 2021.
And yeah, and since it started,
it has provided something like
$16 million
to over 3,100
households.
OK.
And what was the recent announcement
regarding this rental assistance
program?
Yeah, so the city has announced that
it will not be offering
rental assistance when it is
supposed to reopen the portal in
April.
So there is one last little
bit of money that
just became available.
Just recently, right?
Yeah.
Yes, within the last couple of days
and it's available until the 7th,
I believe. So just through the end
of the week.
After that, they won't have any more
money to give.
So they're closing it indefinitely.
And so that was something like it
was supposed to be $4
million. It was going to go toward
rental assistance and eviction
prevention.
And then when the city council had
to cut in the
budget that we saw in November, they
cut $1 million, which essentially
cut off funding for people who need
rental assistance.
Well, we talk a lot about numbers
when it comes to the money, right?
But what do we know about the
numbers of people who were applying
for this assistance and what
kind of options do they have now?
Yeah. I heard from
El Buen Samaritano this morning,
they are the nonprofit that helps
distribute the money.
I hear from their CEO that
they would receive 2,000
applications a month for
rental assistance.
And with the money that they're able
to give, they would maybe be able to
reach between 150 and 180
families. So that's not even like
10% of the need.
Um, so right now
they, the city is still offering
eviction settlements, meaning that
when the resident finally
gets to a point where they have to
negotiate with their landlord to
stay in their home, the city is able
to provide some kind of back rent
funding for that.
And so that's still part of this,
but it isn't soon enough in the
pipeline, right?
If people are applying for rental
assistance, it's way up at the top.
And by the time, if action
settlements coming down, they've
already missed.
You've already been evicted, it
sounds like, right?
Several months of rent and
so this funding does help keep them
in the house because the
city is negotiating with the
landlord directly.
So that'll still be available but
I think there's a lot of concern
about like what families do have
available now.
Rosa Moria was basically telling me
like we're still encouraging people
to call us because there are still
other options out there and our
job is to connect people with those
services the best that they can.
This is a result of the city
cutting things from the budget for
this year. Is it possible that this
kind of assistance could come back
in the future?
I think it is.
I talked to a couple of council
members last week who basically
told me like, this is the end and
we're going to look at how we can
try to put this in another budget.
It does mean, you know, with a lot
of cuts that we're seeing and very
little wiggle room that the city is
going to have to make priorities and
they're going have to make some
tough decisions.
And so it's possible could come
back. I don't know if
that'll happen this budget
session or next, but it is something
that I think council members are
aware of and definitely keeping top
of mind.
All right, and we will continue to
follow that here in the KUT
newsroom. We have been speaking with
Luz Moreno Lozano.
She is KUT's City Hall reporter.
Luz, thanks for coming on the show.
Thanks, Jerry.
And thank you out there for tuning
in. This is listener powered
public radio KUT news.
We are Austin Signal and
we will be back after this break.
This is Austin Signal, welcome
back. The people of Austin have
voted, and Sound Founder on
KUTX is the radio
show of the year.
The host of the show, Sound Foundor
himself, is with us today on Austin
Signal. Thank you for being here
with us. Thank you, for having me,
it's an honor. Well, congratulations
on your award.
You've had a couple of days now to
process this Austin Music
Award. How you feeling?
Feeling good.
Still, I mean, honestly, I was very
surprised. I've been nominated for
it a few times,
but being nominated and winning
are two different things.
No electronic music show has ever
won this award
before, so we're
breaking new ground here.
Yeah, that's very cool.
You know, how long have you been
doing the show here at KUTX and how
long have you've been doing it
before, maybe elsewhere?
Uh, well, I, um,
started at KTX in 2019.
Okay.
Um, they gave me the 1 a.m.
On Saturday night slot.
Oh, ho ho ho!
So I think they were definitely
seeing like how long of
a leash to keep me on at first to
see how weird I was going to get.
But it worked out and people liked
it. And then they bumped me to
Wednesday nights and then they
extended it to two hours and it's
just been going well ever since.
But yeah, I mean, I
wanted to get into radio for a long
time. I actually, I actually did a
handful of segments with Art
Levy.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I'm thinking like it was
2012 or something when he was like
a student, maybe.
So we did, I kind of
helped a little project
called The Loop that was on KUT.
And I was always like, man, I want
my own show.
How do I do it?
And I had thought about it for years
and years. And finally,
after, you know,
really getting it all together, I
kinda did a Hail Mary pass and
pitched it to KUTX and they just
happened to be open to it at that
moment and it worked out.
Cool, well shout out to our friend
Art Levy, wherever he is out there
in the world. We definitely miss
you, Art.
So tell us a little bit about your
show. When does it air and how weird
do you get with it?
Uh, well, it airs
Wednesdays from eight to 10 and,
um, I mean, it really,
I think the threshold of weirdness
is so hard to gage in the
age of the internet, like what I
think is weird. And then I listened
to what an 18 year old is listening
to and it's just completely,
it's such a vast spectrum
of like, what is weird that,
uh, it's, it'd be hard to even, I
don't even think of it in that way.
I just try to think of things that
are.
Stimulating and interesting really
the the premise of the show is like
the full spectrum of creativity
in electronic music So that could
be anything from on
the energy scale It could be
Anything from ambient with
barely any drums or anything all
the way up to like intense glitchy
stuff and everything in between so
try to really just think
of the think of The
Electronic Music World as like
as a set of tools
and an interesting...
Uh, you know, a new kind of horizon
that's being explored and pushed
constantly.
I believe you told me earlier you've
been in Austin since 2005,
and Austin is known for many
scenes, live music scenes.
We had the Any Medals, the KUTX,
February Artists of the Month, we
were talking to them about the Latin
music scene.
What have you seen, how have you see
the Austin electronic scene evolve
over the last two decades.
Uh, well, I would say when I came
here, uh, electronic
music was still pretty
underground, definitely most
of the music industry here
seems pretty focused on guitars
and stuff still.
And, uh little by little that's
been something that's so interesting
is, uh you know,
little by a little they've, you
see, um, kind of
pillars of the, music industry,
here open up to like, like when KTX
first got the and start introducing
healthy amount of hip hop.
I was like that, okay, they're
trying new stuff.
Then they took my show on.
It was like, wow, they really, uh,
you know, going down new avenues
here.
So, um, yeah, I've seen,
I mean, electronic music worldwide
has really just grown and
become more and more intertwined
with other music as it's become
easier to make.
I mean, when I was in high school, I
graduated in 2003 in San Antonio.
When I was a
dollar sampler.
To begin making electronic music.
Now you can just open
up your laptop and start
experimenting with stuff.
So the, I mean,
most musicians are electronic
musicians at this point in some
capacity, like even if it's just,
you know, recording and manipulating
sound in one way or another.
But so yeah, seeing the electronic
music world evolve worldwide
and then kind
of focusing on that
in Austin has really been
the main.
Mission of everything that I work
on, I think.
Well, you're bringing the Austin
electronic scene to the forefront
with your show, and so we asked you
to bring us a couple of
recommendations that we could share
here on the show with our listeners.
Tell us about the first one you
wanted to share with us.
Okay, so the first one is
from an Austin producer named
Brainwave, and
it's actually a track with
a Austin musician
who experiments with
electronic stuff, but he does all
kind of... Bayonne, actually.
There was a photo of him on the wall
in the
green room, I just noticed, but
yeah. So this is Brainwave the
electronic producer collaborating
with Bayonne and it is a It's
a song called Bloom that's really
good.
Okay cool, we got that, what else do
you have?
Uh, another artist that's really
been gaining a lot of traction is
flowbomba.
He's, uh, um,
a beat maker.
He produces, uh what jungle music.
If you're not familiar, you've heard
the sound probably it's that really
sped up kind of breakbeat type
music, but He actually
got a release on his music was
discovered by a UK jungle
legend named Fracture and
Fractured ended up putting out his
album on vinyl in the UK and
then Obama has just been going viral
with doing these jungle remixes
and he recently just last week
did a remix of a Janet Jackson song
and she shared it.
Oh, OK, cool. Her eight million
followers on Instagram.
And so I love seeing stuff like
that break out of the Austin bubble.
I mean, getting your music shared by
Janet Jackson, that's crazy.
All right, cool.
Well, we have a little bit of
recommendations. Again, the show you
can hear it Wednesdays from 8 to
10 before we let you
get out of here,
you were telling me earlier that,
you know, your show used to be
played on some other stations, but
they were saying, you know, it's a
little too Austin centric for you
and you were thinking about, well,
maybe should I change it or should I
lean into it?
Now that you've won this Austin
Music Award for Best Radio Show,
how vindicated are you feeling in
that and how proud are you to be
that representative, be the first
electronic show?
How proud are of the
scene in general, the electronic
music scene here?
I feel great.
Honestly, I think, yeah,
it's been such a joy in
my life to just be a part of the
music scene as a whole in Austin,
but really cultivating and growing
the electronic music scene here.
I obviously can't take the credit
for it because it's a community
thing that we're doing.
But getting to bring that to KUTX
and present it to the listeners here
and not only have that, but to be
accepted and to the point where.
Uh, you know, winning awards and
such, I did not expect it
to go, I, I honestly thought I would
be met with more resistance,
but introducing it to KUTX, but it's
been nothing but love from the,
from the KUTx,
uh, family.
So, um, and, uh
yeah, no.
Very cool.
Well, my partner, who I'll be
pitching with on all things
considered later, Trey Shar, he
said, I'm not really a big
electronic music fan, but I like
Sound Founder. I like listening to
his show. And he's a tough nut to
crack. So if you've got him, you got
everyone. We've been speaking with
Sound Founders, the
winner of the best radio
show of the year from the Austin
Music Awards.
You can tune in and hear Sound
Founded Wednesdays.
From eight to 10 on KUTX,
and you can always stream at
kutx.org.
Sound founder, thank you very much.
Have a great day.
Thank you. And thank you out there
for tuning in.
It has been a busy three days here
in Austin, Texas, and we are doing
our best to cover it as much as
we possibly can.
And that means we're coming back
tomorrow, one o'clock, same place,
same time.
I'm Jerry Quijano, your host.
We'll talk to you then.
Have a good day.