Texans packed the lines around the state to cast their ballots on the first day of early voting, breaking previous records of midterm elections.
The Harris County elections office tallied 63,188 people cast a ballot in the Greater Houston area. The Metropolitan Multi Service Center on West Gray Street in Houston recorded the most voters with 3,471. The Juergen’s Hall Community Center in Cypress had the second highest turnout with 2,640, followed by the 2,500 voters at Champion Forest Baptist Church in north Houston. The Houston Chronicle notes Monday’s turnout beats the previous first day early voting record for midterms set in 2010 by more than 35,000 votes.
Adding 52,413 mail ballots returned on Monday, Harris County election officials have a total of 115,601 early voters for Monday. The Texas Secretary of State reports 2,338,460 people in Harris County are registered to vote.
Travis County saw 34,737 in-person votes on Monday, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Bruce Elfant, the Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar, said 35,999 people voted in person during the first day of early voting in 2016.
Mail ballots in Travis County totaled 12,668. Elfant says that’s up from 11,020 in 2016. Travis County has 775,950 registered voters.
In Bexar County, election officials report 34,021 people showed up for the first day of early voting. Brook Hollow Library in San Antonio had the most voters with 1,575 people. John Igo Library had the second highest turnout with 1,537 people, followed by 1,496 people at Wonderland of the Americas, both in San Antonio.
The San Antonio News-Express reports this year’s first day turnout for early voting is higher than the first day of early voting during the 2014 midterms, where 13,436 votes were recorded. The county’s in-person first day voting record is 35,431, set during the general election in 2016.
The secretary of state reports 59,389 people voted in person on Monday and 22,334 by mail in Dallas County. The Dallas Morning News notes that’s up from the 29,217 votes during the first day of early voting during the 2014 midterm election.
The secretary of state tallied 33,350 in person votes in Collin County and 9,161 votes by mail. The newspaper reports that’s up from 10,312 voters in 2014. Denton County recorded 19,045 votes, up from 9,582 votes in 2014. The Dallas Morning News reports Tarrant County saw 39,672 votes on the first day on Monday, up from 29,391 during the first day of early voting in 2014.
Statewide, 15.79 million voters are registered for the November election.
According to the Dallas Morning News, 240,653 Texans voted early in 2014.
Reform Austin will continue to follow the election through early voting and on November 6. To find your early voting location, use our guide on where to vote.
Voter turnout higher than previous elections in some Texas counties
