EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 El Paso County saw nearly 18% of voters turn out for this year\u2019s primary election, a significant jump for a local election that a political science expert says appears to be driven largely by economic concerns.<\/p>\n
According to the El Paso County Elections website, the unofficial voter turnout results showed about 18% or nearly 93,000 El Paso County residents cast their ballots in this election, a jump from the 2024 primary election, which saw about 11 % voter turnout. <\/p>\n
Speaking to KFOX14\/CBS4 on Wednesday following Election Day, Abha Singh, a political science expert at the University of Texas at El Paso, attributed the increase in this year’s voter turnout to economic concerns. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there is hardly any relief in sight, and inflation is still a problem in a lot of people’s minds. And so people are actually more concerned about those pocketbook issues than anything else right now,\u201d Singh said. <\/p>\n
Singh said economic frustration may be reshaping local and state races, pointing to the primary losses of two county commissioner incumbents: David Stout in Precinct 2 and Sergio Coronado in Precinct 4. <\/p>\n
Singh described those defeats as a sign that anti-incumbent sentiment is gaining traction, adding that higher-than-expected turnout can disrupt campaign expectations and make results harder to forecast.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then people show up in large number like 18%. And then of course it’s hard to predict in what kind of outcome there is going to be,\u201d Singh said. <\/p>\n