{"id":471149,"date":"2026-10-20T02:34:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471149\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T02:34:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:34:27","slug":"early-voting-begins-in-travis-county-as-voter-registration-nears-1-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471149\/","title":{"rendered":"Early voting begins in Travis County as voter registration nears 1 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/votetravis.gov\/current-election-information\/current-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Early voting<\/a> is underway in Texas, and Travis County is approaching a new milestone: nearly 1 million registered voters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every year for the last 20-plus years we&#8217;ve seen a percent uptick in voter registration, and we&#8217;re reaching that one million voter mark for Travis County,&#8221; said  Travis County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado.<\/p>\n<p>Officials expect a couple hundred thousand people to cast ballots early at 45 voting locations across the county.<\/p>\n<p>In South Austin, the opening of a new polling location is bringing voting closer to residents who previously drove 10 to 20 minutes to reach a polling place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe pretty much drive across the street now. We can walk. Yeah, we could walk,\u201d said South Austin voter Randall McKee.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/prediction-markets-show-talarico-leading-paxton-in-texas-senate-race\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO| Prediction markets show Talarico leading Paxton in Texas Senate race<\/a><\/p>\n<p><p>KEYE<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Menchaca Public Library is serving as a polling location for the first time. Travis County also added a site at Bedichek Middle School in South Austin and another in Pflugerville.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are places where we had some gaps and saw an increasing turnout over the last couple of years,\u201d Limon-Mercado said.<\/p>\n<p>Midterm election turnout in Travis County typically reaches about 40% to 50% of eligible voters, according to the clerk. In especially competitive elections, turnout has climbed to nearly 63%.<\/p>\n<p>Limon-Mercado said the county has added polling sites, equipment, and election workers to prepare for a possible surge in voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did open more sites, more equipment was deployed, more election workers. So, if we do have a surge in voting, we should be equipped to handle it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>McKee said having a polling place nearby could encourage more people, especially younger voters, to cast a ballot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving something close by as a reminder to vote, I hope it will get younger folks to vote,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/votetravis.gov\/current-election-information\/current-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Early voting <\/a>runs through Oct. 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Early voting is underway in Texas, and Travis County is approaching a new milestone: nearly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-471149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}