Voting banners are seen outside this month’s polling station in Plano, Texas.
Dan Tian / Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
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Dan Tian / Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
Voting banners are seen outside this month’s polling station in Plano, Texas.
Dan Tian / Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
Texas achieved a milestone four days before Election Day: The number of early voters who cast their ballots in the Lone Star this year surpassed the entire cast of the entire cast in the whole of 2016.
To date, more than 9 million Texans voted, according to a count he compiled American Election Project, Which is a database to track turnout.
During the last general election, the turnout rate for the nation’s second most populous state was 8,969,226, according to figures released by Texas Secretary of State’s Office.
Michael MacDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida who directs the US election project, said Texas joins Hawaii as the first state to exceed 2016 voter turnout numbers through early voting alone.
Texas surpassed its total 2016 vote in its early 2020 vote, joining Hawaii as the second state to do so.
– Michael MacDonald (@ ElectProject) October 30, 2020
The benchmark set by Texas on Friday, which received 38 electoral votes, comes on the final day of the state’s early voting.
“Today is your last chance to vote early in Texas,” state election account He said in a tweet Friday. “Find an early polling site, and a list of 7 forms of certified photo ID that you can use to vote, and what to do if you don’t have one and can’t reasonably get it from VoteTexas.gov.”
Voters line up at the American Airlines Center during early voting in mid-October in Dallas.
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Voters line up at the American Airlines Center during early voting in mid-October in Dallas.
LM Otero / AP
This early statewide turnout also comes on the heels of Harris County, which includes Houston, setting an all-time record with turnout Thursday evening.
“We just had the highest voter turnout. Ever. Nearly 1.4 million votes were cast in Harris County and we haven’t even finished early voting yet. Let’s get the score up, Texas!” Harris County Judge Lena Hidalgo chirp.
New: We have just achieved our highest engagement rate. Start. Nearly 1.4 million votes were cast in Harris County and we’re not done with an early vote yet. Let’s raise the score, Texas!
Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) October 30, 2020
NPR member station Houston Public Media I reported that county clerk Chris Hollins echoed similar sentiments outside NRG Park, one of the eight locations that held the 24-hour vote starting Thursday night.
Jane Rice from Houston Public Media Tweet a moment, Which was not welcomed, not by the cheers, but by the car horns by those attending a concert led by artists Bun B and the Suffers.
With millions of voters across the state expected to turn out on Election Day and ballots still to be sorted by mail, the prospect of Texas setting a new turnout record may be a possibility. The Texas Tribune reported.
The news organization said the increase in votes was partly due to higher turnout during early voting and increases in registered voters in growing urban and suburban counties in Texas.
For decades, Texas has been reliably a red state, voting for the Republican presidential candidate in every general election since 1980.
However, 2020 has proven to be a great year for a variety of reasons.
Recent polls show President Trump is narrowly leading the state over Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Trump has a 2.3 percentage point lead in the state, according to the average Real Clear Politics polls. The tight race prompted the organization to act Texas to class “toss-up”, And join the traditional swing states like Nevada, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio.
Overall, more than 83.5 million Americans have voted to date. McDonald’s analysis shows, Including 29.5 million who voted in person and nearly 54 million by mail.
