More voters turned out for Austin election of ’73 than for latest election with mayor’s race?

Austin resident Bee Moorhead, attending a “civic summit” hosted by Austin’s KLRU-TV, Channel 18, said in a Twitter message posted from the scene: “More people voted in 1973 election when Roy Butler was elected mayor than in the most recent Austin mayoral election.”

Did more voters turn out out for the election involving Butler, who served as mayor from 1971 to 1975, than the May 2012 election giving Mayor Lee Leffingwell another term? After all, Austin’s population nearly tripled in the years in between, rising from 290,300 in 1973 to 824,205 in 2012.

No matter. Records show there were 14,142 fewer voters in the 2012 city election compared to 1973. (Also, Butler drew 43,753 votes, Leffingwell 25,446.)

We rated Moorhead’s claim as True; detail to the right.