Getty Ted Cruz vs Beto O'Rourke
Texas early voting has come to an end, and statistics are already being reported for October 22, 2018 through November 2, 2018, showing a huge spike in voter turnout compared to early voting in the 2014 midterm elections, and numbers that get close to the presidential race turnout for 2016 . One of the key elections drawing voters in the Ted Cruz vs. Beto O’Rourke Senate race, which continues to generate controversy.
Early voting is usually popular among Texans. In 2016, 73.5 percent of votes were cast early, and in 2014, 54.1 percent of votes were cast early. But the overall percentage of people who vote is still typically low. In the last four midterms, only 33.6 percent to 38 percent of registered voters actually voted in Texas. It remains to be seen what will happen this year on November 6.
Here are some of the numbers being reported from Texas counties after the final early voting day.
In 21 out of 30 of Texas’ largest counties, early voting in Texas had already nearly surpassed the turnout for the entire 2014 election by Thursday, a full day before early voting ended, My San Antonio reported. On Thursday, voters had cast a total of 4.3 million votes in those 30 largest counties, compared with 4.7 million Texans who voted in the entire 2014 election. And this only accounts for the 30 largest counties, still leaving 224 Texas counties to add to those numbers.
Texas Tribune reported that a regular election typically sees about 2.9 million to 3.2 million Texans voting early. But by the end of the day on Thursday, 4.3 million Texans had already voted early. That’s a significant increase over typical mid-terms.
Here are some more specific results by county.
Bexar County: In Bexar County, early voting numbers surpassed 2014 mid-term totals, Rivard Report noted. Bexar County residents cast 42,124 votes, which was just shy of the 46,651 cast in the 2016 presidential election. But it far surpassed the 17,938 votes cast in the 2014 mid-terms. Young voters ages 18-24 nearly doubled their early voting participation, accounting for 6.7 percent of the total vote compared to the usual 3.6 to 3.9 percent.
Collin County: As many early votes were cast in 2018 as in 2016, the Houston Chronicle reported. This kind of turnout is unusual for a mid-term election.
Dallas County: 85,000 more people voted early this year than voted total in the last midterm in 2014, not including the 36,000 mail-in ballots. A total of 529,112 people voted early. The age breakdown weighed heavily for ages 50 and above:
Denton County: The official numbers aren’t in yet as of the time of publication, but a huge turnout happened on the last day.
By October 30, Denton County was already nearing the numbers for 2016 and far surpassing 2014. On Day 8 in 2014 there were 46,970 votes cast compared to 154,629 votes in 2018 on Day 8. (In 2016, the number was 157,651.)
El Paso County: By Thursday, more than 27 percent of registered voters had voted early, compared to 20 percent in 2014 early voting, My San Antonio reported. With just one day left, El Paso already had the second-highest early voting turnout of any election, but it wasn’t expected to surpass 2016.
Harris County: Harris County’s early voting turnout surpassed the entire voting turnout for 2014, the Houston Chronicle reported, and may have even surpassed the 2010 Tea Party push. The Houston Chronicle predicted that Harris County might see 1 million votes for the first time in a mid-term election.
By the end of Friday, the numbers were updated to show 855,711 early votes cast by the end of the day, compared to 977,000 in 2016 and far surpassing 375,000 in 2014. It even surpassed 758,000 early votes in 2012.
Nueces County: In Nueces County, early voting turnout in 2014 reached a total of 33,422. By Thursday, the 2018 number had already beaten 2014 with a total of 59,898 ballots. Nueces County is easily surpassing 2014 early voting numbers.
Tarrant County: Early voting in Tarrant County on Day 12 surpassed 2014 by more than 20,000 votes, but it was about 5,000 votes shy of 2016.
Tarrant County, early voting day 12:
2014: 30,485
2016: 56,154
2018: 51,630
GREAT JOB, everyone!!
Travis County: 200 more people voted early in 2018 than in 2016 (372,388 compared to 372,188.) Interestingly, the percentages are lower, however (51 percent voted early in 2016 and 47.2 percent voted early in 2018.)
Williamson County: More than 43 percent of registered voters voted early in 2018, compared to 38 percent voting early in 2014, My San Antonio reported.
The Cruz-Beto election is no doubt helping voter turnout as it attracts attention not only in Texas, but across the nation. One of the most recent controversies involved a Project Veritas video claiming that O’Rourke’s campaign had illegally used campaign funds to help potential immigrants in a caravan in Mexico. O’Rourke’s campaign clarified what happened on Friday, explaining that staff had taken it upon themselves to use less than $300 in campaign funds to donate supplies to an El Paso nonprofit to help people in need, Texas Tribune reported.
“Staff members took it upon themselves to use prepaid cards from one of our more than 700 field offices to buy baby wipes, diapers, water, fruit and granola bars, and donate them to a local humanitarian nonprofit (Annunciation House) that helps mothers and children in the community,” O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said. “The value was under $300 and it will be appropriately reported to the FEC.”
Meanwhile, Cruz and O’Rourke are still close in polls, although Cruz remains ahead. A UT-Tyler poll on October 31 showed Cruz’s lead narrowing to 3.6. An Emerson College poll released on Thursday showed Cruz holding a 3 point lead, with 2 percent of respondents still undecided, The Hill reported. The margin of error in that poll was 3.7 percentage points.