Election Snapshot

Same song, second (or third) verse? Once again, the progressives and greens have shown that you cannot win if you do not vote. Look at the Central Austin row on the bottom chart under "Citywide Totals." Even including the always anemic UT/West Campus boxes, Central turnout was the highest in town; factor out those UT boxes with their less-than-1% turnout, and Central's turnout was closer to 19%.

Of course, it helped that every single Central box - including the two in Tarrytown - voted for all three bonds, by a healthy 2-1 or more margin. But if Northwest and Southwest had matched that 19% turnout, or if North, East, and South Austin had produced even 10% turnout, Prop. 2 (which lost in the majority of the city's 160 precincts) would have gone down. Of the 69 boxes which had a turnout above the citywide average, only 11 were in East, South/Southeast, or North Austin.

Now, some Northwest and Southwest boxes did match Central Austin's effective 19% turnout - the ones in newly annexed areas (see chart immediately below). Foremost among these was at Circle C Ranch (box 304, Kiker Elementary), which saw a whopping 43.8% turnout and delivered over 1,000 "no" votes on all three bonds.

Overall, though, it was the Northwest that led the general opposition to the entire bond package; the Southwest's animus was more specifically directed at Prop 2. But as the chart below also shows, the boxes within the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District as a whole (which comprises precincts in Central, South/Southeast, and Southwest) matched the city's overall support for Prop 2.

The other races on the ballot, for the aquifer district and AISD, ended up following, rather than leading, voter response. If anything, the bond races skewed results in the AISD contests, not the other way around - Pct. 7 candidate Olga Garza ended up winning outright, and avoiding a runoff, because of the heavy Circle C turnout, most of which went into her column.

It's interesting that the Smart Growth bonds did as well or better, in percentage terms, than any of last year's City Council winners (see bottom chart). This holds true, for the most part, even in sectors that voted against the bonds. Of course, the bonds-vs.-Watson comparison is apples-and-oranges, since there were seven candidates in last year's mayoral race, but the trend is still visible.

And, in case you're curious: Despite being spanked pretty firmly in the district-wide AISD races, Diana Castañeda (supposedly a serious candidate) and Jennifer Gale (supposedly not) did each win a few boxes. Castañeda took three (very low-turnout) Hispanic Eastside boxes, while Gale won nine (also low-turnout) boxes, all over the map, but mostly in North Austin. Why boxes like Lanier High School went for the cross-dressing fringe candidate, who spent $45 in her campaign, is anybody's guess. (One election night theory was that voters in the North, unfamiliar with either candidate, went for the female name on the ballot.)

(Note on charts: Vote totals are for City of Austin only; therefore, totals may not match those for the overall joint election as reported on the City's website (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us).

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	Area Statistics				PROP 1		PROP 2		PROP 3
	Votes Cast	Turnout	Boxes	% of City	Yes%	Boxes (W-L)	Yes%	Boxes (W-L)	Yes%	Boxes (W-L)
Newly Annexed	4,895	19.1%	12	11.2%	43.8	5-7	27.1	0-12	38.4	4-8
AISD Pct. 4	11,070	15.8%	26	25.4%	56.8	24-2	48.6	10-16	60.9	25-1
AISD Pct. 6	6,615	11.9%	23	15.2%	65.7	20-3	68.2	13-10	72.6	22-1
AISD Pct. 7	7,277	15.7%	23	16.7%	51.9	13-10	39.8	3-20	50.6	16-7
Outside AISD	3,203	14.9%	8	7.4%	45.0	4-4	29.3	1-7	40.1	2-6
BS/EACD	13,810	14.0%	43	31.7%	58.6	31-12	53.3	16-27	61.0	35-8
TOTAL	43,513	11.3%	160	100.0%	58.4	113-47	53.3	69-91	62.9	135-25

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Bond Results by Region of City
Citywide Totals
	Registered Voters	Votes Cast	Turnout	# of Boxes
Central	86,816	13,177	15.2%	37
East	35,238	2,277	6.5%	16
North	70,907	5,986	8.4%	28
NW	61,095	8,753	14.3%	21
S/SE	64,166	3,249	5.1%	28
SW	67,113	10,071	15.0%	30
TOTAL	385,335	43,513	11.3%	160

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Bond Results by Region of City
Proposition 1
	Margin	Yes %	Boxes (Y-N)
Central	5,349	70.6%	37- 0
East	208	54.7%	10- 6
North	230	51.9%	13-15
NW	179	51.0%	16- 5
S/SE	318	55.0%	18-10
SW	892	54.5%	19-11
TOTAL	7,176	58.4%	113-47

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Bond Results by Region of City
Proposition 2
	Margin	Yes %	Boxes (Y-N)
Central	6,434	74.6%	37- 0
East	-106	47.6%	4-12
North	-526	45.6%	7-21
NW	-2,029	38.3%	2-19
S/SE	102	51.6%	12-16
SW	-1,075	44.6%	7-23
TOTAL	2,800	53.3%	69-91

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Bond Results by Region of City
Proposition 3
	Margin	Yes %	Boxes (Y-N)
Central	7,458	78.7%	37- 0
East	728	66.3%	16- 0
North	1,090	59.2%	22- 6
NW	204	51.2%	15- 6
S/SE	697	61.0%	23- 5
SW	840	54.3%	22- 8
TOTAL	11,017	62.9%	135-25

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1997 Council Races
Results from the primary and runoff elections
	1997 Turnout*	% for Watson	% for Garcia	% for Spelman	% for Lewis
Central	18.8%	61.4	64.0	70.4	71.2
East	14.6%	43.5	60.9	44.4	34.6
North	12.1%	44.2	46.7	51.7	50.7
NW	16.3%	40.3	35.4	40.1	42.6
S/SE	8.7%	45.0	57.6	50.1	52.9
SW	14.9%	41.2	41.6	45.7	46.3
TOTAL	14.3%	48.2	51.4	54.7	54.4