Record turnout for 2018 early voting

Texas voters broke turnout records during early voting this year after the Texas Secretary of State recorded 4,884,528 votes from October 22 to November 2 in the state’s 30 most populous counties.
In 2014, the last midterm, Texas had 4.7 million total voters in the election, with 1.7 million voting early in person or casting their ballot by mail. There were just over 14 million registered voters in Texas in 2014. The most recent figures from the Secretary of State show there are now 15.6 million registered voters in the Lone Star State.
During this early voting period, Harris County produced the state’s largest turnout, with 855,711 votes cast in person or by mail. The 2018 early vote was a huge increase from the 2014 early voting period, when Harris County saw 375,227 cumulative in-person and mail voters.
 

Other major counties showing big increases in combined in person voter turnout and mailed in ballots included:

• • Dallas County where 529,521 voted in person or by mail, up from 215,147 in 2014.

 

• • Tarrant County had 465,817 total, more than double its 212,492 total in 2014.

 

• • Bexar County recorded 414,192 total early votes, up from 190,274 total early votes in 2014.

 

• • Travis County saw 368,048 voters cast early ballots this year, up from 2014’s 142,759.

 

• • Williamson County had 162,574 voters from October 22 to November 2, nearly triple its 59,042 early votes in 2014.

 

• El Paso County, home county of Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, recorded 139,105 total early voters, up 38,399 early votes cast in 2014.

The Houston Chronicle reports an increase in Hispanic voting may be responsible in part for the increase in voters this year. A spokesman for the Harris County Clerk’s Office told the newspaper more than 16 percent of Harris County voters have a Spanish surname, a record for a midterm election.
During the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Texas counted 8.9 million votes out of 15 million registered voters.
The Texas Secretary of State reports 4.49 million people voted in person and by mail for early voting in 2016 in the state’s 10 most populated states.
Those who didn’t vote during early voting can still cast their ballot on Tuesday, November 6, Election Day.