Early voting turnout in Travis County continued to surpass every primary election since 2008, with nearly 171,000 voters casting their ballots over the past two weeks. <\/p>\n
Nearly 19% of all registered voters in the county went to the polls during early voting. That may seem small, but it\u2019s a big win for a county in Texas, which routinely trails behind the rest of the nation in voter turnout, according to the Texas Policy Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n Out of Travis County’s 920,114 registered voters, 14.8% cast a ballot in the Democratic primary, and 3.77% voted Republican. <\/p>\n With Election Day to go, Democrats have already surpassed the voter turnout of the last gubernatorial primary election in 2022. In that election, 13% of Democrats voted; this year, nearly 15% of Democrats have voted so far. <\/p>\n Voter turnout is up statewide<\/a>, particularly among Democrats as they try to win a statewide office seat for the first time since 1994.<\/p>\n Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, told KERA News<\/a> that in previous elections, Democrats haven\u2019t felt like they had a \u201creal shot at winning.\u201d But a high-profile battle between U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Texas Rep. James Talarico to be the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in November has motivated voters to hit the polls.<\/p>\n “It certainly means that there’s more hope on their side,” Wilson told KERA News. “That for a variety of reasons, they’ve got a fighting chance to post some real gains in the fall.”<\/p>\n