Burnt Orange Report

Texas Votes: Breaking Records Across the State

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

Much has been said of the the stunning early vote number pouring in across Travis County. This has been seen across the state's largest counties as reported by the Secretary of State's office. Though the latest numbers won't be up until Monday, it is very likely at this point that over 1,000,000 Texans have cast their ballots, over 10% of Registered voters.

So is it happening just in the urban core of Texas? A little research from the Texas Newspapers list shows that is most certainly NOT the case.

Something is different this year. Turnout is up across the state from the biggest cities to the smallest towns. There is something fundamentally different about the electorate. (I've overheard that here in Travis County, 17% of those who have already cast ballots have never cast one here in Travis County before: think students and inactive long time registered voters.)

First, from my Hometown of Fredericksburg in Gillespie County...

An unprecedented turnout marked the first two days of early voting here this week for the Nov. 1 general election as well as for City of Fredericksburg and County of Gillespie special property tax freeze balloting.

At the county courthouse both Monday and Tuesday, lines of voters spilled out of the county commission courtroom where early in-person voting was in progress and streamed through the adjoining hallway and even at times extending out through the building's front door. (picture)

"It's been really astonishing," said County Clerk Mary Lynn Rusche who is overseeing balloting for both the general election and the county property tax freeze election.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday when early voting ended for the day, a total of 1,304 ballots had been cast Monday (666 ballots) and Tuesday (638 ballots). (County Population ~20,000)

"We've been busy since early voting started here at 8 a.m. Monday," she said. "I could tell by the high number of mail ballot requests that we had received here through last week that early in-person voting was going to be heavy, but this is far beyond what I imagined. It's really great!"

She added that many of the voters there so far this week are new voters who in the past had not voted early...

Mrs. Rusche said this week's voting is far beyond anything she has seen since 1979 when she began working in the county clerk's office as a deputy clerk and especially since no-reason early voting was allowed around 20 years ago.

More below the fold...

From Kerr County: The first day of early voting for the 2004 General Election was described as “heavy,” with 1,451 Kerr County citizens marking their ballots before the polls closed at 5 p.m. Monday, according to the county clerk’s chief deputy, Nadine Alford.

Voters lined up “out the door” throughout the day, waiting for a turn to cast their votes, she said.

With long lines that began at 8 a.m. Monday, poll workers had little time to break during the day, even for lunch, said Kerr County Clerk Jannett Pieper. Both the county clerk’s office and the voter registrar’s office reported busy phones and steady streams of traffic throughout their offices all day.

Also in Kerrville..In the last two weeks, 1,148 Kerr County citizens registered to vote or updated addresses, Rector said.

Impressive for a County with about 40,000 people. And by Wednesday, over 4000 had voted in Kerr County.

From Longview News-Journal:

Upshur County: "We've had a tremendous turnout," Upshur County's assistant elections clerk Glenda Cox said late Monday afternoon. "We've had 419," Cox said. "We've never had a first day like this; it's really been good today. It's really unusual for Upshur County to vote this much on the first day."

Rusk County: In Rusk County, where voters are deciding on a new sheriff and choosing a district attorney, first-day balloting was "very, very heavy," said Diana McKey, elections clerk. "We had 656 votes by 3:30," she said. "We've never had that many on a first day."

Gregg County: "The line has been from the voting table out to the door all day long," said Kathryn Nealy, Gregg County deputy voter clerk. "The election has been highly publicized and people are interested in this election."

Also, she said, her office has received three or four calls coming in at the same time all day Monday. "We've had calls all day long," she said. "The majority of the calls have been 'where do we go vote?'”

From Brazoria County: On Monday, 3,288 people cast ballots, by far the highest opening day total in the county since early voting by appearance began in 1992. In 2000, 2,950 people voted on the first day....

Brazoria County Clerk Joyce Hudman was almost giddy Tuesday talking about the turnout. She said north-end voters are coming out in the greatest numbers, creating the need for more voter sign-in sheets than usual. “In Manvel, they vote one sheet, maybe,” she said. “They voted six sheets (Monday).”

Hudman said early voting usually doesn’t peak until the second week. “I think it will pick up next week,” she said.

Hudman said she’s also getting a lot of phone calls from people asking about limited ballots.

People are so motivated they are asking to vote even with limited ballots. Here in Travis County, the clerks office has told a tale about in past years, those that call asking where they need to vote if they forgot to change their registration to Austin gave up after learning they had to vote back home. This cycle, they are saying "OK" and heading out across Texas to go vote.

From Anderson County: "Lines were long during the opening day of early voting at the Anderson County Courthouse, with more than 650 people casting ballots in next month's general election...

Brown said she believed Monday's turnout was a record for the first day of voting in Anderson County.

From Lamar County: "Marlowe said she expects a record turnout both at the early voting box and in the election in general.

“We’ve had 1,246 ballots cast in the first three days,” Marlowe said, explaining that 420 voters cast ballots on Monday; 475 Tuesday and 351 Wednesday."

From Erath County: Early voting for the Nov. 2 general election is off to a strong start according to Erath County Clerk Gwinda Jones.

“People are standing in line to vote today,” Jones said on the first day of early voting. “We expect it to be pretty heavy today.” In fact, as of late Monday afternoon, nearly 500 voters had cast their ballots early at the courthouse.

In Comal County: Comal County elections worker Cynthia Jaqua said 7,731 had cast ballots in the county elections as of Friday afternoon. Jaqua said 4,739 ballots were cast in the first week of early voting in the presidential election four years ago.