Voter Turnout in Austin City Council Elections in 2016

I recently completed a study of voter turnout in the 2016 city council elections, comparing voter turnout in 2014 with 2016. As expected, since “timing is everything” in explanations of voter turnout in municipal elections, voter turnout increased significantly.

Overall, voter turnout increased by 14.63 percent, which is less than the most recent difference in voter turnout between a midterm and presidential election in Texas—an almost 23 percent higher voter turnout. Also, in both 2014 and 2016, the district with the highest voter turnout was District 10 with nearly 55 percent of registered voters participating. However, the district with the lowest voter turnout in 2014 was District 6 whereas the district with the lowest voter turnout in 2016 was District 2 with slightly more than 37 percent.

Source: Calculated from Travis County Election Results. Percentage of registered voters.