This map indicates where every person elected to the Austin City Council from 1971 through 2014 lived at the time they were elected.
In those instances where a mayor or council member lived at the same location for multiple terms—a common occurrence—this map shows only a single marker.
This map illustrates the fact that until 2014—when a City Charter change took effect to allow election of city council members from 10 geographic districts—major portions of the city had been grossly underrepresented for decades and political power was heavily concentrated within a relatively small portion of the central city. The 2014 election implemented 10 geographic council districts and provided political representation to every area of the city once the 10 council members were sworn in January 6, 2015.
How to use the maps: Icons marking residence locations are color coded for race (white for Anglo, black for African American, brown for Latino, and yellow for Asian American). The gender is denoted within the icon by M for male and F for female. The icons for mayors are enclosed in red circles.
Click on any icon to get a pop-up box with information about the person. Click on the blue link within the pop-up to go to a map showing the members who served on the council as a result of that election. Pop-up boxes on the individual election-year maps contain more information, to include the year elected, the number of opponents, the number and percentage of votes, and if there was a runoff the number of votes and percentage of votes won in the runoff.
The map for the 2014 election also includes extensive information about campaign spending by the candidate elected and by independent political action committees.
For ease of navigation, links to the aggregate map and all individual election maps are displayed beneath each map.
The names of all people who were elected to serve on the council from 1971 through 2014, and the year(s) they were elected, are listed to the left of this map.
About this project: This mapping project starts with 1971 because that was the first year in which citizens were able to directly elect the mayor. That was made possible by a City Charter changes approved by voters in 1969 that also expanded the council to seven members beginning in 1971. Before that, voters elected five members of the council and those council members chose the mayor.
Sources: City Demographer Ryan Robinson provided a database that served as a starting point for identifying residence locations in the early decades. The Austin Bulldog checked that information, and added to it, through research in old city directories at the Austin History Center and, in some cases, through calls to former officeholders and surviving spouses. Addresses for more recent members of the council were taken from ballot applications and financial statements that candidates and officeholders filed with the city clerk.
Election results incorporated in these maps was taken from the City Clerk’s Election History website. The 2014 election results for the mayor and District 6 also include votes cast in the Williamson County portion of the City of Austin.
Find an error? Any errors that may exist are the responsibility of The Austin Bulldog and corrections will be made promptly upon notification. Accuracy is important, and notification of any needed changes will be appreciated.
Photo credits: Nearly all of the photos of mayors and council members who were elected from 1971 through 1991 were purchased from the Austin History Center and cropped to fit the layout. Individual and group photos of more recent electees were provided courtesy of the City of Austin’s Public Information Office. Former Council Members Roger Duncan and Mark Rose provided their photos. The photos for those elected in more recent years were downloaded from the candidates websites or other websites.
