Update (10:30 pm): The Greater Austin Chamber has released its response to tonight's vote. The Chamber says it's excited about the technology upgrades being provided by the passage of bonds 1 and 3. While lamenting that Prop 2 lost by about 200 votes saying, "we should remember that only 7.2% of registered voters cast a ballot. Those who thought someone else would solve this problem were mistaken. Every vote matters."
Update (10:20 pm): With all votes counted, AISD only won 2 of the 4 bond propositions on the ballot today.
Winners:
Prop 1: $140 million for Health, Environment, Equipment and Technology
Prop 3: $350 million for Academic and Building Infrastructure Renovations
Losers:
Prop 2: $234 million for Safety and Security and Relief from Overcrowding
Prop 4: $169 million for Academic Initiatives, Fine Arts and Athletics
Update (9:35 pm): With more than 34 thousand votes cast Prop 1 and 3 are winning. Prop 2 is down by 33 votes and Prop 4 is losing by about 600. Final vote counts are expected soon.
Update (9:04 pm): OK...scratch that last update. Travis County has picked up the pace on releasing totals. Two of the AISD bonds are now winning overall.
Prop 1 for Health, Environment, Equipment and Technology and Prop 3 for Academic and Building Infrastructure Renovations now have more that 50 percent of the vote.
Prop 2 (Safety and Security and Relief from Overcrowding) and Prop 4 (Academic Initiatives, Fine Arts and Athletics) are still behind.
Update (9:00 pm):
While the early vote was against all 4 bond propositions, the Election Day vote is all breaking for the props.
About 25-hundred votes have been counted so far today. The AISD bonds are still behind on each:
Prop 1: Against by 491 votes
Prop 2: Against by 762
Prop 3: Against by 187
Prop 4: Against by 1,164
Update (8:00 pm): The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, which campaigned for the AISD bonds, has issued an election night release on early voting totals.
Early voting suggests this might be a tight election for all four bond propositions. The Austin Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors unanimously endorsed the AISD bond election. The case Austin ISD made for the bonds was clear and compelling. To help pass the bond election, the Austin Chamber members and staff raised substantial funds, placed yard signs, spoke at press conferences, phone banked, extensively promoted the bonds within in our 2,700 members and bylined guest columns in local newspapers. The Austin Chamber hopes election day turnout will be sufficient to pass all four bonds.
Update: Austinites headed to the polls today to decide on an $892 million dollar bond election. The money was divided into 4 propositions.
Prop 1: Health, Environment, Equipment and Technology
Prop 2: Safety and Security and Relief from Overcrowding
Prop 3: Academic and Building Infrastructure Renovations
Prop 4: Academic Initiatives, Fine Arts and Athletics
Early voting totals were released just after 7 tonight. And all 4 props were losing with only between 48 percent and 46 percent of the vote.
The only organized campaign against the bonds was run by the Travis County Taxpayers Union, which traditionally campaigns against any and all bond initiatives within the county.
Check back later for updates.
