Spring Council Elections

The city of Austin website features a handy election history database reaching back all the way to 1840, with fairly consistent data on council elections beginning with the 1920s (check it out at www.cityofaustin.org/election). A quick glimpse shows that registered Austin voters have always been a fickle bunch, showing up in droves one election year and then barely making a peep the next. Shown here is each decade's highest and lowest voter turnout for spring council elections during the last 90 years. It's worth noting that over the last three decades, voter turnout for City Council elections has declined by more than 20%, not just in Austin but in most major U.S. cities. For more, visit Austin Community College's Center for Public Policy and Political Studies website at www.austincc.edu/cppps and look under "Resources."