When will the Austin mayoral race be called?

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Even with unofficial results fully tabulated in the Austin mayoral race, KXAN is still unable to make a projection nearly one week later.

That's because there are still ballots outstanding that could push Incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson -- who currently has 50.01% of the vote, into a runoff with second-place Carmen Llanes Pulido. Those outstanding ballots include some late mail-in ballots, provisional ballots and overseas and military mail-in ballots. Watson needs more than 50% of the vote to win outright.

So you may be wondering, when will those final ballots be counted?

At the very latest, the Texas Secretary of State election law calendar shows those results must be posted no later than Nov. 19. However, KXAN reached out to the Travis County and Williamson County clerk's offices to figure out when they intended to have their canvass and finalize results. Hays County also has some Austin voters that may play a role, but those numbers are expected to be much lower.

Here are some dates provided to KXAN by the Travis County Clerk's Office:

• Statewide, the deadline to receive overseas military ballots is Nov. 12
• Travis County expects to do its canvass Nov. 13-14
• Results for Travis County could be posted as soon as the end of this week

Here are some dates provided to KXAN by the Williamson County Clerk's Office:

• Williamson County said last week that it had not scheduled an official canvass yet but that it will be "around" Nov. 15
• That will "then go before the Commissioners Court so there will be a public announcement," a spokesperson for the county said

A canvass "is a post-election process that aggregates and confirms that all valid ballots cast in the election are accurately counted and included in the final election results. Through the canvass, election officials determine whether to count provisional ballots, resolve ballot marking errors, adjudicate voter intent, and reconcile the number of ballots cast with the number of people who voted," according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

How many outstanding ballots are there?

The Travis County Clerk’s Office said there are about 6,000 mail ballots that were sent out but have not yet been returned, and it’s unclear how many of those will be received by the deadline. In addition, there are about 3,200 provisional ballots that still need to be reviewed before it’s determined whether they will be counted.

Late-arriving ballots are also possible in Williamson and Hays County, but those totals are expected to be much lower than in Travis County.

KXAN digital data reporter Christopher Adams contributed to this report.