East Texas election officials weigh in on early voting turnout

On the first day of early voting, Smith County Elections Administrator Michelle Allcon says turnout has been steady.

TYLER, Texas — With a number of high-profile races on the ballot, Texas election officials are expecting a strong turnout during the March primary election. 

Voters in the Republican and Democratic parties will help decide which candidates move on to the November election. On the first day of early voting, Smith County Elections Administrator Michelle Allcon says turnout has been steady.

“A steady trickle of people coming through over the entire county,” Allcon said. “We’ve had roughly 350 voters this morning. We hope that that number continues steady throughout the rest of early voting or goes up, we don’t want to see it go down.”

Officials say early voting offers voters flexibility that they might not see on Election Day. 

“What if you had a flat tire? What if something happened, if you had an emergency in your family and you could not vote that day?” Gregg County Elections Administrator Jennifer Briggs said. “It’s done. You can’t vote anymore.”

Both Allcon and Briggs encourage voters to do their research and know who will be on their ballot before heading out. 

“Both parties put out a kind of a survey of propositions to poll their constituents to kind of see what they feel is important, and they may bring it up later for the legislation to make some changes,” Briggs said.

Early voting runs through February 27th and marks the first election under new legislative and congressional maps — though East Texas voters won’t see major changes. In Smith and Gregg counties, voters now look ahead to March 3rd for Election Day and results.