Texas Is On Track For Record Turnout In This Election After Breaking Early Voting Records

Houston TX

31 October, 2020

6:23 PM

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By Jeremy Schwartz, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica and Mandi Cai, The Texas Tribune Oct. 31, 2020 After the conclusion of three weeks of early voting, 9.7 million Texans have cast ballots, crushing previous early voting totals in the state and setting Texas on a course for record turnout in this Tuesday's general election. At least 9,709,376 voters cast early ballots, according to preliminary final numbers released by the Texas Secretary of State and the counties on Saturday morning. That is 57.3% percent of registered voters, just shy of the overall turnout of 59.4% in 2016 by 2 percentage points. Of those early votes, 8,738,363 were cast in person; 971,013 were cast by mail. "Texas is on track for record turnout in this election after breaking early voting records" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Early voting, which Gov. Abbott extended by six days this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, has already eclipsed total votes during the 2016 general election, when 8,969,226 Texans voted. Texas has added 1.8 million registered voters since the 2016 election. Texas has not surpassed 60% turnout of registered voters since the early 1990s. Harris County, Texas's most populous county, leads the state with 1.4 million votes cast. Among large counties, Collin County outside of Dallas has the highest early voting turnout with 69%. This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/31/early-vote-tally/. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.