The vote counting in College Station's city council election begins Tuesday at 1 p.m. It's a race that a good portion of voters didn't cast ballots for when they went to the polls.

After votes were counted Tuesday night, Jana McMillan led John Nichols by 78 votes in the race for the unexpired term for Place 5. It was left vacant after Larry Stewart's death this summer.

Outstanding ballots were due Monday evening. As many as 800 votes could have been cast via mail, according to the county.

College Station voters also had a transportation user fee on the ballot in the election. The extra fee to help with annual road repair costs was easily defeated by voters, and judging by the numbers, they cared more about that proposal than the city council seat.

In all, 16,425 residents voted in College Station during early voting and on Election Day. A little more than 15,000 of those cast a vote for or against the transportation user fee.

However, only about 12,000 voted in the city council race. That means a quarter of College Station voters either chose not to vote for a candidate or missed that race.

In the lead-up to the election, city officials emphasized that voting straight party means no vote would be cast for the special city elections.

The winner of the council race will be sworn in Wednesday afternoon at the council's workshop meeting. Their term only lasts until this coming May.