Austinites voted to reinstate camping bans in the city May 1, passing Proposition B with a margin of more than 15% to create criminal penalties for camping in public, panhandling, and sitting or lying down in the downtown area.
Meanwhile, a group of propositions aimed at reforming democratic processes in the city had mixed results. Austinites resoundingly defeated a proposition that would have created a strong-mayor form of government, opting not to replace the city manager as the most powerful position in city hall. However, voters did approve of electing the mayor in presidential years beginning in 2024 and ranked-choice voting, a system that will do away with runoff elections and instead have voters rank candidates in order of preference.
Austin voters are split between three counties: Travis, Williamson and a small number of voters in Hays. However, the vast majority of Austin voters reside in Travis County. Because this was the first May election Austin participated in since 2016, Travis County's turnout was much higher than it has been in past years.
The last time Austin participated in a May election was 2016, when a ride-hailing proposition supported by Uber and Lyft failed, leading the two companies to briefly stop service in the city. Turnout in that 2016 election was 17.53%. Total turnout in 2021 was 22.55%, including 66,598 voters on election day and 104,656 early voters.












