Through Oct. 18, 25.2% of registered voters had cast their ballots in Texas’ 10 largest counties.
Through Oct. 18, the sixth day of early voting for Texans in the 2020 general election, 2,446,094 people had voted in person and by mail in Texas’ 10 largest counties— 25.2% of registered voters in those counties. According to the latest figures reported by the secretary of state before the 2020 general, 57.3% of registered voters live in these 10 counties.
What you need to know
- Early voting polls were closed in some counties on Sunday, Oct. 18, and mail is not delivered on Sundays.
- Two key Texas counties — Democratic stronghold Harris and traditionally red Denton — are setting early voting records.
- Sixty percent of Texas likely voters said they plan to vote early in-person this year, according to a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll.
- In 2018, Texas saw the nation’s sixth-highest voter turnout increase, but still lagged behind most other states.
As Texans head to the polls to choose their candidates for the 2020 general election, The Texas Tribune will update this tracker daily through the early voting period, which runs from Oct. 13 to Oct. 30. Data is provisional and subject to change as counties finalize numbers.
Due to the pandemic, this election’s early voting period was extended by a week, and officials are expecting a surge in early votes by mail. Both factors will contribute to higher turnout for early voting. These totals include mail-in ballots received before the start of the early voting period.
Politically, the 10 largest counties shown here don’t match Texas’ other 244 smaller counties. In 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won the large counties by about 620,000 votes. President Donald Trump netted 1.4 million votes in the other counties and won the state. The large counties moved further to the left in the latest statewide race, when U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke won the large counties by 930,000 votes. But that couldn’t offset Sen. Ted Cruz’ 1.1 million vote advantage in the other counties.
BY MANDI CAI with Texas Tribune.
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