HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — With election season in Harris County in full swing, thousands decided to take advantage of the early voting window.
According to the county clerk’s office, from Feb. 17 to Feb. 27, there was a total of 346,797 ballots cast.
The majority of ballots have been from Democrats, with 220,284. For Republican voters, that number is 126,513.
“I’m not as surprised at the difference, although it is a pretty striking increase from previous years and certainly on the Democratic side, but even also higher on the Republican side,” Nancy Sims, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said.
Sims said the driving force behind the numbers is the highly contested races.
Harris County voters will get to help decide who their party’s nominees are for U.S. Senator, county judge, and several U.S. House seats.
“On the Democratic side, you’ve got a very heated campaign between qualified candidates who think they may be the best one to face the Republican to give Texas a victory in the Senate. Right. So I personally think that’s one of the biggest drivers of turnout because both sides of the aisle have very competitive races there,” Sims said.
While early voting data shows Democratic voter turnout is much higher than it is for Republicans, Sims said that could very well change come Election Day.
“The Republican Party has been encouraging people to vote on Election Day instead of voting earlier by mail. So it has to do with some of their election security issues that they’ve been pushing out to their party,” she said.
While early voter turnout numbers in Harris County have jumped from previous years, the same can’t be said for the whole state.
“At the statewide combined average of both party primaries, it’s higher than normal, but it’s still a pretty low percentage. It’s still under 20%. So hopefully you’ll see that increase on Election Day.”
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