Voter Turnout -- City of Austin 
Municipal Elections, 1981 - 2000

Since 1981 Austin has held 13 municipal elections.  Twelve have required a runoff with voters making an additional trip to the polls.  Registered voter turnout has declined from 38% in 1981 to 5% in 2000.

      Municipal Election       //          Runoff Election

      April 4, 1981    38%         //       May 2, 1981       36%
      April 2, 1983    39%         //       April 30, 1983    33%
      April 6, 1985    28%         //       May 4, 1985       30% ***
      April 4, 1987    24%         //       May 2, 1987       27% ***
      May 7, 1988     23%         //       May 28, 1988     23%
      May 5, 1990     16%         //       May 26, 1990     14%
      May 4, 1991     23%         //       May 18, 1991     22%
      May 1, 1993     29%         //       June 5, 1993      27%
      May 7, 1994     26%         //       June 4, 1994      16%
      May 4, 1996     13%         //       June 1, 1996      12%
      May 3, 1997     17%         //       May 31, 1997     12%
      May 1, 1999       8.36%    //       no runoff required
      May 6, 2000       5.19%    //       June 3, 2000        4.67%

*** Turnout is usually lower in the runoff; 1985 and 1987 were exceptions.   

Election results for the City of Austin from May 11, 1926 through 1997 are available at the Austin City Connection, Rita Noak, Public Information Office, 499-2220.   They are posted at: http://malford.ci.austin.tx.us/election/search.cfm
Data for the elections in 1999 and 2000 were obtained from the research section of the Austin City Clerk's office.

The Charter Review Commission (appointed to advise the Austin City Council on amendments to the city charter) has recommended that Austin adopt Instant Runoff Voting.

What is Instant Runoff Voting?  It is a process that guarantees a majority winner without an additional unnecessary election.  Voters rank the candidates rather than simply picking one.  For full details on Instant Runoff Voting.  

Instant runoff voting (IRV) is a majority voting system that provides compelling advantages: 
  1)  It saves taxpayers the cost of runoff elections ($442,000 in year 2000).  Austin has had 12 runoff elections in the last 20 years.
  2)  It also saves the time and costs to citizens of an additional trip to the polls.
  3)  Voter turnout has dropped from 38% to 5% since 1981.  Turnout for traditional runoff elections is even lower.  With IRV, having fewer unnecessary elections will result in higher voter turnouts.
  4)  Perhaps most importantly, the instant runoff voting process provides voters will a clearly superior voting choice in all races where there are 3 or more candidates. With instant runoff voting, all voters are able to vote for their first choice candidate without concern that such a vote will increase the election chances of a candidate they detest.

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