Uber and Lyft have been campaigning for support against fingerprinting, with both companies threatening to leave the city if the proposition fails.
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With 13 percent of all election day precincts reporting, election day voters were more lopsided in their opposition, voting the proposition down 62.28 to 37.72 percent, according to results from the clerk’s office.
The companies outspent their opponents by 80-to-1 and when the votes were tallied their campaign contributions broke down to being more than $200 for each vote in favor of their position.
“Disappointment does not begin to describe how we feel about shutting down operations in Austin”, the Uber statement read.
Between infamous incidents like the Kalamazoo murder suspect and countless stories of attempted assault, drivers for the ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft don’t always get the benefit of the doubt.
“Unfortunately, the rules passed by City Council don’t allow true ridesharing to operate”, Lyft said, adding it will suspend operations in Austin as of Monday.
Mayor Steve Adler, who supported the December regulations and the decision to send the issue to the voters on the ballot, tweeted his support for bringing discussions between the city and the ride-hailing companies back after the results were finalized.
While the Texan capital is not as large or renown as other Lone Star cities like Dallas and Houston, the vote could be interpreted as a stronger rebuke in another way: Austin is one of the strongest startup cities in the United States outside of Silicon Valley.
The proposed settlement was similar to a case involving an Uber competitor, Lyft Inc., which in January agreed to pay more than $12 million to settle claims of California drivers.
Uber and Lyft spent almost $9 million on a May 7 special election in Austin, Texas. It pulled out of another Texas city, Corpus Christi, in March after policymakers there adopted fingerprinting requirements for ride-hailing services.
“I don’t think a multi-billion dollar corporation has any damn business telling the people of Austin how to run their city”, said Peck Young, a longtime Austinite and political consultant in the city.
The issue of fingerprinting has dogged ride-hailing companies since their inception.
Kitchen led the effort to enact fingerprint background check requirements.
Uber said in a statement to local station KVUE that it too would cease operating in Austin, but would continue to serve surrounding areas. However, it is unknown if drivers are able to drop passengers off within the city limits.
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“Today, neither Prop 1 choice is best for Austin because neither delivers by itself what we need …” Buffington said he would not submit to fingerprinting at this point, anxious more about identity theft and rejecting the notion fingerprinting actually would improve riders’ security, also arguing that other regulatory demands were glossed over in the public debate. “Drivers value their independence-the freedom to push a button rather than punch a clock, to use Uber and Lyft simultaneously, to drive most of the week or for just a few hours”. One evening, plaintiffs say they documented four street hails in a little over an hour. “And Austin made Uber an example to the nation”.
