By Andy Sevilla

Shane Arabie will join the Kyle city council after voters decisively elected him to the city’s vacant District 3 seat Saturday night.

Arabie was battling Laurie Luttrell for the seat Chad Benninghoff renounced in May. 

Arabie kept his lead in the early vote and carried over 73 percent support to the finish line Aug. 31. 

Arabie received 337 total votes (73.26 percent), while Luttrell pulled out 123 (26.74 percent), according to the unofficial results.

Leading up to Election Day, Arabie maintained what turned out to be an insurmountable lead with 234 votes. Luttrell received 83 votes during the same two weeks of early voting. 

The two candidates faced off for a second time Saturday night after neither received an outright victory in a three-candidate race for the same seat earlier this month.

Arabie is expected to take his seat on the council once the election results are canvassed. The Kyle council was scheduled to canvass the results Sept. 2, but the city cannot legally do so until five days after the election, due to two out-of-country ballots that were cast. Out-of-country ballots have up to five days after the election to be received by the election’s office, according to Hays County Elections Administrator Joyce Cowan. 

Once the deadline has passed, the election’s office will finalize the election and forward the final report to council for canvassing.