Voting at the University of Texas at Austin's Texas Union was briefly interrupted on Election Day after fire alarms went off twice inside the building, which was serving as a polling location. University of Texas at Austin police are now searching for a person of interest they believe triggered the activations and are asking the public for help identifying that individual.
UT Austin police said they were investigating two incidents in which the fire alarm was activated at the Texas Union on Tuesday morning, according to fox7austin.com. The alarms caused a brief interruption to voting operations before things got back on track. Operations resumed after about a ten-minute delay, per the same report.
Police Release Image, Say Person Isn't Tied to University
Officials released an image of a person identified by witnesses as the possible suspect, the station reported. Investigators said they believe the person of interest is not affiliated with the University of Texas, and police described the matter as an active criminal investigation rather than a routine alarm malfunction.
Anyone who spots the person of interest is being asked to contact UTPD dispatch at 512-471-4441, option 9, according to the Austin American-Statesman. People with information about the person's identity have also been asked to email UTPD's records unit, as KEYE reported in its coverage of the incident, which was authored by Stephanie Gonzalez and published Tuesday afternoon.
Voting Continued Despite the Disruption
Despite the two alarm activations, voting at the Texas Union was scheduled to continue until 7 p.m., according to The Daily Texan. The student paper noted that other voting locations near campus included the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and University Presbyterian Church, giving voters alternatives if lines or disruptions became an issue at the Union.
The Texas Union's role as a polling site this year traces back to a 2024 report from The Daily Texan, which said the university planned to move its primary polling location from the Flawn Academic Center to the Union for the November presidential election because of construction planned at the FAC. That shift put the Union, a busy student hub, in the position of hosting Election Day voting when the alarms went off.
As of the latest reporting, the investigation remains ongoing, and police have not said whether anyone has been identified, arrested, or charged in connection with the alarm activations.
